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1923
Volume 1
•••
January: Paul Revere
February: William Preston
March: Roll Call
April: Public Schools
May: Spirit of Masonry
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June: Robert Burns
July: Albert Pike
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August: Book of Constitutions Guarded by the Tiler’s Sword
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October: Master’s Piece
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November: The Rite of Destitution
December: For the Good of the Order
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September: Warren Harding – Freemason
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Volume 1, Number 1, January 1923
Paul Revere
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“Listen my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere—”
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hese opening lines of Longfellow’s
poem, and the thrilling story which follows,
have fascinated us for many years. History has
recorded the details of the famous ride, and the incidents connected with it; but Masons know little about
Paul Revere that arouses enthusiasm. It is my purpose
tonight to bring out the important facts regarding him
and to how the setting which brings our patriot brother closer to us.
The forefathers of Paul Revere were Huguenots,
that brave sect of French Protestants who for many
years defied Rome and the King of France. The Huguenots maintained their identity and churches in spite
of edicts and persecutions. In 1540, six of their villages
were completely destroyed and the inhabitants driven
out, ravaged and murdered at the behest of the King. On
August 24, 1572, the Huguenots were the victims of one
of the most despicable massacres that ever took place –
the Massacre of St. Bartholomew – in which more than
six thousand of them were sought out in Paris and murdered in a human hunt lasting three days. The waters of
the seine ran red with blood; the bodies of the victims
were so numerous that the current was unable to carry
them away; and for many miles the banks of the river
were covered with their remains. When the news of the
massacre reached Rome a three day’s celebration was
ordered by the ecclesiastical authorities. King Charles
of France, who, together with his mother, had been influenced by Church leaders to order the massacre, was
congratulated on the service thus performed for the
Holy Roman Church.
Volume 1, Number 1, January 1923
The persecutions to which the Huguenots were subjected caused more than four hundred thousand French
to leave the country and settle elsewhere. Among those
who fled was Simon de Revoire, who moved to the
Island of Guernsey in the English Channel. Simon’s
brother Isaac, being a man with a large family, stayed
on in a remote part of France, later sending one of his
sons, Apollo de Revoire, to his Uncle Simon, at the age
of thirteen. After a time his uncle sent the nephew to
Boston, where he was apprenticed to a goldsmith. Here
he learned the secrets of the trade, and after a visit to
Guernsey, he returned to America with the intention
of making this country his home. His first step was to
change his name to one more easily pronounced by his
English speaking neighbors, and he was henceforth
known as Mr. Paul Revere.
Establishing himself in business as a gold and silversmith, Revere married Miss Deborah Hitchborn in
1729. Twelve children were born of this union. The Paul
Revere we are discussing tonight was the third of these,
born January 8, 1735.
We learn that Revere received his education at the
famous old “North Grammar School” kept by Master
John Tileson, who taught school in Boston for eighty
years. He was especially famed for his skill in penmanship. Doubtless we have here the foundation for one of
Revere’s later activities – engraved lettering.
Young Paul Revere followed in his father’s footsteps
as a Gold and Silversmith. Specimens of his work are
still treasured to this day in some old New England
families, and give ample evidence of his artistic skill.
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Among the Massachusetts leaders of the Sons of
Liberty were Samuel Adams and John Hancock, to
whom Revere attached himself. Not gifted with speech,
as were his associates, he nevertheless reached the public through his clever cartoons on political events of
the day. He also carried secret dispatches to the leaders
of the Sons of Liberty in New York and Philadelphia;
and his unquestioned integrity and excellent memory
served the Colonists well when written word could not
be safely conveyed.
In 1766 the Stamp Act was repealed, except as to tea,
and this served to quiet matters somewhat for a time;
but the determination of King George III to force the
tea tax upon his colonists made them all the more determined to resist the measure. Cargoes of tea were
shipped and landed under protest. Merchants throughout the colonies agreed not to handle the commodity, and very little was sold, such as did trickle into the
channels of trade being handled by Troy shopkeepers.
The arrival of the Dartmouth on November 28, 1773,
caused the Sons of Liberty to call a mass meeting which
was attended by over seven thousand people. Resolutions were passed urging that the tea not be landed, and
that it be sent back to England in the same ships. Guards
were placed to make sure that the tea was not brought
in surreptitiously. Another meeting was called on the
30th, at which the officers of two additional ships which
had arrived in the meantime were made to promise that
they would leave the harbor without unloading their
tea cargoes. Governor Hutchinson, however, interfered
with this solution of the problem by forbidding the issuance of clearance papers until the cargoes should be
discharged. The rest of the story has been recorded in
history’s pages. A group of patriots, disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded the vessels, and destroyed three
hundred and forty-two chests of tea valued at $90,000.
It has been asserted by many writers that the Freemasons of the colony had a large part in the destruction
of the tea cargoes. Definite information is not available, but contemporaneous records of unimpeachable
character lead us to believe that there is some truth in
the assertions. The records of Saint Andrew’s Lodge,
of which Paul Revere was a member, show that on the
night of November 30th, 1773 – the night for the annual
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Inspired by long experience in embellishing the articles manufactured by him, Revere undertook the art
of engraving on copper, with marked success. Books of
the 17th and 18th centuries show that this was a popular form of illustrating. Many of Revere’s pictures were
political caricatures and cartoons; and among the best
of his works is an engraving depicting the Boston Massacre, which was extensively copied in Europe. He also
designed bookplates, and in later years furnished the
engravings from which Masonic certificates were made.
The outbreak of the French and Indian Wars in 1756
prompted him to enlist in the British Colonial service.
Commissioned a second lieutenant of artillery by Governor Sterling, he participated in the expedition against
Crown Point under the command of General John
Winslow. Here he received the military training which
enabled him to give excellent service in later years as
major, lieutenant – colonel, and colonel of artillery in
the armed forces of Massachusetts.
Upon his return from military service, Revere was
married in 1757 to Miss Sarah Orne of Boston. Seven
children were born of this union. After sixteen years
of wedded life, the faithful wife died, leaving Revere a
widower at 38 with a large family on his hands, a business to look after and political events engrossing his attention. To quote Revere, he found his household “In
sore need of a mother,” and within a short time after the
death of his first wife and infant child, he married Miss
Rachel Walker, ten years his junior. Eight children were
added to the six of his first marriage.
The Stamp Act of 1765 was one of the causes of the
American Revolution. This act provided for a tax on
certain articles imported by the colonies. The imposition of this tax was not so objectionable in itself to the
colonists as the fact that they had no voice in the matter.
This right, they felt, belonged to them under the Magna
Charta, the foundation of English Liberty. The opponents of the act formed themselves into bands known
as the Sons of Liberty. Meetings were conducted with
great secrecy, those in Boston being ultimately held at
the Green Dragon tavern. It is of more than passing interest to note that St. Andrew’s Lodge, many of whose
members participated in the stirring events of the Revolution, purchased this tavern March 31, 1864.
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removal of the carriages. Revere invented a new type,
and the guns were again placed in commission.
In July 1776, Revere was commissioned an officer in
a new regiment raised for the defense of the town and
harbor of Boston. His important duties and services ultimately won him the rank of colonel of artillery. Adverse conditions made his position a difficult one, but
he steadfastly fulfilled his duties and made the best of
a bad situation. In 1779 he participated in a expedition
against the British in what is now Maine. Through mismanagement on the part of some military and naval
commanders, the expedition was a failure, and the soldiers made their way back to Boston in scattered groups.
In addition to his military service, Revere was called
upon in 1775 to engrave the currency of the Colony of
Massachusetts. In 1776 he engaged in the manufacture
of gunpowder, sorely needed by the American Forces,
and was employed to oversee the casting of cannon.
The war services of Paul Revere did not conclude his
service to the new nation. He contributed to the economic welfare of his community by establishing an iron
foundry, and in 1792 began casting church bells, many
of which are still in existence. A “Hardware” store – as
jeweler’s shops were called in those days – established
by him in 1783, enabled him to dispose of the silverware
which he continued to manufacture. He invented a process for treating copper which enabled him to hammer
and roll it while hot, a process of great value in shipbuilding. In 1800 he established a foundry for rolling
copper in large sheets. This was such an important industry that the government of the United States loaned
him $10,000, to be repaid in the form of sheet copper.
This was the first copper rolling mill in the country, and
dispensed with the necessity which had existed before
of importing this commodity from England. Robert
Fulton’s steam engines were equipped with copper boilers made from Revere’s plates. Revere also covered the
bottom of the Frigate “Constitution” – better known as
“Old Ironsides” – with sheet copper. The business was
incorporated in 1828 as the Revere Copper Company,
and is still conducted in Canton, Mass.
Revere’s life, and the services he rendered to the
country, are sufficient in themselves to endear him to
every patriotic American. Yet, we, as Masons, can claim
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election of officers – only seven members were present.
No election was held, and the presence of only seven
members given as the reason according to the entries
in the lodge minutes.
As a result of the Tea Party, laws were passed in Parliament closing the port of Boston. These measures
only served to inflame the people. Revere was soon in
the saddle again, carrying messages to enlist the support of the southern provinces in behalf of Massachusetts. The Massachusetts House of Representatives reorganized under the name of the “ Provincial Congress”
and voted to enroll twelve thousand Minute Men. Revere made further trips south, and in December 1773,
carried news north to Portsmouth, N.H., that the importation of military stores had been forbidden by Parliament, and that a large garrison was coming to occupy
Fort William and Mary at the entrance to the harbor.
The Sons of Liberty thereupon surprised the fort and
removed upwards of one hundred barrels of powder
and fifteen cannon.
Governor Gage of Massachusetts became alarmed at
these aggressive acts of the colonists. Outlying stores of
gunpowder and arms were called in, and every precaution taken to guard against further surprises. The Sons
of Liberty soon learned that the British were preparing
for action. On April 18, 1775, Dr. Joseph Warren, Grand
Master of Massachusetts, who was to give his life for his
country two months later at the battle of Bunker Hill,
learned that troops were gathering on Boston Common.
Fearing for the safety of Samuel Adams and John Hancock, Warren sent for Revere and begged him to go to
Lexington to warn these men. Revere had been to Lexington a few days before, and gravely doubted the possibility of getting through the lines in event the enemy
should form, had arranged, by a show of lanterns, to indicate the route taken by the British. Revere then made
the ride which has preserved his name to posterity, as
graphically told with certain poetic license by Longfellow.* (At this point the rendition of Longfellow’s poem
by a competent dramatic reader would be effective.)
Paul Revere’s ride, however, was not the end of his
activities in the patriot cause. After the British had vacated Boston, being harassed by Washington’s troops, it
was found that the cannon had been disabled by the
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a still closer tie. Paul Revere was made a Mason in Saint America honor most the Paul reveres of the nation,
Andrew’s Lodge on September 4, 1760, being the first who from day to day, in every time of history and walk
Entered Apprentice to receive that work in this body. In of life, thoughtfully and patriotically serve mankind.
If, however, we are to come to the fullest possible
1770 he became its Master; in 1783, when St, Andrew’s
Lodge was divided on the question of remaining under realization of what the life of a man like Paul Revere
the Grand Lodge of Scotland, from which body it had means to his country and to his Fraternity, we must go
received its Charter dated November 30, 1756; or affili- further than a mere personal estimate. No matter how
ating with the new Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, he effective his life may be in arousing our pride and stimwas one of the twenty-three who voted to withdraw ulating our efforts, we must still take one more step. It
from the old relationship. A new lodge was formed in will not do merely to judge a life like his according to
the standards of this day. We must realize the results of
September 1784, under the name of Rising
States Lodge, and Revere was elected its Master. He his work in the light of the conditions which he faced.
I wonder if we can visualize the Colonial period of
made the jewels for this lodge, and engraved and printed certificates of membership and notices. He served this country’s history? The scattered settlements, the
as Grand Master of Massachusetts from 1795 to 1797, in- log cabins grouped about stockades out in the wilderclusive, assisting Governor Samuel Adams in laying the ness, the wide distances separating the towns and vilcornerstone of the Massachusetts State House, July 4, lages, and the uninhabited, waste districts between; the
1795, on which occasion he delivered a stirring address. bridle paths over the mountains, the narrow, almost imHis charities were quiet and unostentatious. He passable roads with the lumbering stage coaches passfounded the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics As- ing up and down at irregular and infrequent intervals;
sociation in 1795, and served as its president from its a time when it cost a shilling and more to carry a letter;
founding until 1799, when he declined any further of- a country without telegraph, without typewriter, without railroad – and a people who could not even dream
fice, although continuing his interest.
His domestic life was peaceable and happy. The de- of such things as these.
Even so the picture is not complete. We must piccease of his second wife in 1815 left him a lonely old man.
Revere himself “passed out with the tide” on May 10, ture a country possessed of very few schools, and what
1818, and was buried in Granary Burial Ground where schools that were open, were open only to the sons of
his old friends, Hancock and Adams, had preceded him. the rich. Intelligence and idealism were impossible for
the poor boy, except as he learned them at the fam* * * * *
Quiet, unassuming, without great gifts as an orator ily altar. The minds of the common people were on
or statesman, he nevertheless engraved his name on the same low, deadly level which prevailed among the
that which is far more enduring than the metals of his lower classes of Europe. Under such circumstances can
Craft – the pages of his country’s history and the hearts we not see how the superior mind would revolt against
of his country’s citizens. Behind him was the martyr- these sordid conditions? First would come the passion
dom of his Huguenot ancestors; around him was the for liberty, and following that, an intense determinainspiration of Freemasonry’s ideals; within his vision tion that these conditions must be bettered.
Then we are able to recreate the influence of the anof the future was a great representative government of
a free people wherein religious liberty should be both cestry of a man like Revere? Many a long evening was
a fundamental principle and an inalienable right. And spent around an open fireplace, with perhaps a tallow
so he served with the talent that he had in the hum- dip candle or two burning dimly on the mantle, while
bler spheres of everyday life as well as in the greater and the head of the household told of the tragedy of his
more spectacular crisis in the life of his commonwealth. flight from the persecutions inflicted upon his peoUnselfish service was his ambition and his watch- ple. What would the effect of such a recital be upon
word, his biography and his epitaph. Freemasonry and a youth like Paul Revere? Can we realize how these
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the service of the colonial pioneer really was. To us in
our modern day the accomplishment of these fearless
men may not loom so large, but in their day and time
they performed wonders when they gave their passion
for liberty and brotherhood free reign and started in to
establish a government by, for and of the people.
Well may we ask, how could they do it? What gave
them their breadth of vision? And it is in this primitive
setting that we find the answer. The forces of necessity
drove them, persecution was behind them and if they
did not build their new Temple of Liberty aright, persecution and failure lay before them. In the face of a need
like this, they won; they accomplished great things for
humanity. They planted the seeds of brotherhood in
the fallow ground of a new homeland and we, who are
their posterity, are reaping the reward.
This it is which places upon us the responsibility for
doing in our day what they did in theirs. The conditions,
which we have to meet, are different from theirs. The
problems, which we have to solve under the complex
conditions of modern civilization, would look hopeless
to them. My Brethren, they would be hopeless to us did
we not have their examples before us and were we not
familiar with the principles which they applied to their
problems in those tempestuous days. We have the same
principle, we have the same Masonic atmosphere of
brotherhood and we have an even greater opportunity
than they had to put these principles into practice and
make them live among men today. Ours is the task to
maintain the freedom of speech and conscience which
they established for us and to see to it that Freemasonry,
grown now to a fraternity of men far greater in number
than all the people who lived in the thirteen colonies,
shall stand foursquare for law and order, for the right
to think and worship as we please, and for the perpetuation of those priceless privileges which the Paul Reveres of early America wrought out of their needs and
the conditions which faced them, because they had the
Masonic vision, the Masonic fervency and the Masonic
zeal to build after the Masonic pattern.
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traditions would influence his mind, how his boyish
imagination would be kindled and how his appreciation of the liberty which the Colonists were trying to
work out for themselves in the new world would grow
into a veritable passion for freedom? As he grew older
he would see the stalwart pioneers around him trying
to plant here a new type of civilization, an institution
which would insure to every man the utmost of personal liberty which he could expect without infringing
upon the rights of others. Can we not see how a youth
raised in this atmosphere would be inspired with a desire to promote and further the development of these
institutions? With stories of murder and oppression of
his people firing his youthful imagination, can we not
see that as he grew into manhood his mind would be
quickened? Can we not understand how any example
of oppression, however slight, would arouse the fighting instincts, and tyrannical injustice become as it were
a baptism of patriotism, dedicated to the new home
which his troubled soul was finding in company with
his fellow refugees?
We must also realize that an atmosphere very like
this existed all through the colonies. It was justified, my
brothers; these hardy pioneers had fled the Old World
where free thought, free speech and free Conscience
did not exist. They had come away with hideous memories of their friends and neighbors tortured and hung
for the most trivial crimes. Years of tragedy had taught
them the sacrifices that men make who stand up for
what they believe, for opinion’s sake.
It is only when we come to appreciate all of this
background that we can understand the fierce resentment in the hearts of the colonial leaders when tea
profiteers sought to impose their burdens of taxation,
or religious bigots tried to fasten upon the minds of the
people narrow ideas the trend of which would be to
bring about a union of Church and State. We must picture Paul Revere as one of the central figures in a great
drama like this, staged in a wilderness, with enemies
both within and without; if we could appreciate what
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Volume 1, Number 2, February 1923
William Preston
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hen we hear the name of William he set out for London in 1760. One of these letters was
Preston we are at once reminded of the addressed to William Strahan, the King’s Printer, with
Preston lectures in Freemasonry. It is to whom Preston secured a position, remaining with StraPreston that we are indebted for what was the basis of han and his son for many years.
Preston possessed an unquenchable desire for
our Monitors of the present day. The story of his literary labors in the interest of the Craft, and how they knowledge. As was common to the times in which he
aided in making Freemasonry one of the leading edu- lived, “man worketh from sun to sun.” The eight-hour
cational influences during the closing decades of the day, if known at all, was a rarity, and Preston supplanteighteenth century, is one of absorbing interest to ed his earlier education by study after his twelve-hour
working day was over. The critical skill exercised in his
every member of the Fraternity.
William Preston was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, daily vocation caused literary men of the period to call
August 7th (old style calendar, July 28th), 1742. His fa- upon him for assistance and advice. His close associather was a “Writer to the Signet,” a law agent peculiar tion with the intellectual men of his time was attested
to Scotland and formerly eligible to the bench, there- by the discovery after his death of autographed presenfore a man of much educational standing. He natural- tation copies of the works of Gibbon, Hume, Robertly desired to give his son all the advantages which the son, Blair, and others.
The exact date of Preston’s initiation is not known,
schools of that day afforded, and young Preston’s education was begun at an early age. He entered high but it occurred in London in 1762 or 1763. It has been
satisfactorily ascertained that his Mother Lodge was
school before he was six years old.
After the death of his father Preston withdrew from the one meeting at the White Hart Tavern in the
college and took employment as secretary to Thomas Strand. This Lodge was formed by a number of EdinRuddiman, the celebrated linguist, whose failing eye- burgh Masons Sojourning in London, who, after being
sight made it necessary for Preston to do much research refused an application for a Charter by the Grand
work required by Ruddiman in his classical and linguis- Lodge of Scotland, accepted a suggestion of the Scottic studies. At the demise of Thomas Ruddiman, Pres- tish Grand Body that they apply to the ancient Grand
ton became a printer in the establishment of Walter Lodge of London. The Ancients granted a dispensation
Ruddiman, a brother of Thomas, to whom he had been to these brethren on March 2nd, 1763, and it is claimed
by one eighteenth century biographer that Preston was
formerly apprenticed.
Evidence of Preston’s literary ability was first shown the second person initiated under that dispensation.
when he compiled a catalog of Thomas Ruddiman’s The minutes of the Athol (Ancient) Grand Lodge show
books. After working in the printing office for about that Lodge No. 111 was Constituted on or about April
a year, a desire to follow his literary inclinations pre- 20th, 1763, William Leslie, Charles Halden, and John
vailed and, well supplied with letters of introduction, Irwin being the Master and Wardens, and Preston’s
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frequent visitor to other Lodges. He was asked to visit
the Lodge of Antiquity No. 1, one of the four Old Lodges which formed the Grand Lodge of England in 1717.
On that occasion, June 15, 1774, he as elected a member
of the Lodge and also Worshipful Master at the same
meeting. This unusual action is additional evidence of
the regard in which he was held by the Brethren of his
day. While he had been Master of several other Lodges, he gave of his best in time and energy to the Lodge
of Antiquity, which thrived greatly under his leadership.
He became an active member of the Grand Lodge,
serving on its Hall Committee, a committee appointed
in 1773 for the purpose of superintending the erection
of the Masonic Hall which had been projected, and he
was later appointed Deputy Grand Secretary under
James Heseltine. In this capacity he revived the foreign
and country correspondence of the Grand Lodge, an
easy matter for him because of his extensive personal
correspondence with Brethren outside of London.
In 1777 occurred an event, which was momentous
in the Masonic affairs of the period. On account of the
mock and satirical processions formed by rival societies the Modern Grand Lodge of England had forbidden
its Lodges and Members to appear in public processions in regalia. The Lodge of Antiquity, on December
17th, 1777, resolved to attend church services in a body
on St. John’s Day, the following 27th, selecting St. Dunstan’s Church, only a short distance across the street
from where the Lodge met. Some of the members protested, saying it was contrary to Grand Lodge regulations, with the result that only ten attended, these donning gloves and aprons in the church vestry, and then
entering to hear the sermon. At the conclusion of the
services they returned to the Lodge without first removing their Masonic clothing. This action was cause
for debate at the next meeting of the Lodge in which
Preston expressed the opinion that the Lodge of Antiquity had never surrendered its privileges and prerogatives when it participated in the formation of the Grand
Lodge in 1717, and held that it could parade as it did in
1694. The Grand Lodge, however, could not afford to
overlook such an opinion, especially when expressed
by the leading Masonic scholar of the day, and consequently Preston was expelled.
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name was listed as the twelfth among the twenty-two
on the roll of membership.
It was not uncommon in those times (and the custom still prevails in England, Canada, and other countries, and among several Grand Jurisdictions in the
United States) for Masons to belong to more than one
Lodge, and Preston and some other members of his
Mother Lodge also became members of a Lodge Chartered by the Moderns, which met at the Talbot Tavern
in the Strand. These brethren prevailed upon the membership of Lodge No. 111, which in the meantime had
moved its meeting place to the Half Moon Tavern, to
apply to the Modern Grand Lodge for a Charter. Lord
Blayney, then Grand Master, granted a Charter to the
members of Lodge No. 111, which was Constituted a
second time, on November 15th, 1764, taking the name
Caledonian Lodge No. 325. This Lodge is still in existence, being No. 134 on the present registry of the United Grand Lodge of England.
The constitution of the new Caledonian Lodge was
a noteworthy event because of the presence of many
prominent Masons of the day. The ceremonies and addresses on this occasion made a deep impression upon
Preston, being among the factors which induced him
to make a serious study of Freemasonry. The desire to
know more of the Fraternity, its origin and its teachings, was intensified when he was elected Worshipful
Master, for, as he said: “When I first had the honor to
be elected Master of a Lodge, I thought it proper to
inform myself fully of the general rules of the Society,
that I might be able to fulfill my own duty and officially enforce obedience in others. The methods which I
adopted, with this view, excited in some of superficial
knowledge an absolute dislike of what they considered
innovations; and in others who were better informed, a
jealously of preeminence, which the principles of Masonry ought to have checked.”
Preston entered into an extensive correspondence
with Masons at home and abroad, extending his knowledge of Craft affairs and gathering the material which
later found expression in his best known book, “Illustrations of Masonry.” He delved into the most out of
the way places in search of Masonic lore and wisdom,
by which the Craft was greatly benefited. Preston was a
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wealthy only, being conducted by private interests and
requiring the payment of tuition beyond the purse of
the common people. Yet, education was eagerly sought.
Knowledge was looked upon as the key, which would
unlock the door to intellectual and spiritual independence. While Preston began his schooling at an early
age, even with his excellent start he extended his education only by diligent work and the burning of much
midnight oil. Imbued with the spirit of the day, he was
anxious to place the available knowledge of the times
before his fellow men. Therefore, when he discovered
a vast body of traditional and historical lore in the old
documents of the Craft, he naturally seized upon the
opportunity of modernizing the ritual in such a way as
to make accessible a rudimentary knowledge of the arts
and sciences to the members of the Fraternity.
From 1765 to 1772 Preston engaged in personal research and correspondence with Freemasons at home
and abroad, endeavoring to learn all he could about
Freemasonry and the arts it encouraged. These efforts
bore fruit in the form of his first book, entitled: “Illustrations of Masonry,” published in 1772. He had taken
the old lectures and work of Freemasonry, revised
them and placed them in such form as to receive the
approval of the leading members of the Craft. Encouraged by their favorable reception and sanctioned by the
Grand Lodge, Preston employed, at his own expense,
lecturers to travel throughout the kingdom and place
the lectures before the lodges. New editions of his book
were demanded, and up to the present time it has gone
through twenty editions in England, six in America,
and several more in various European languages.
After his death, on April 1st, 1818, it was found that
Preston had provided a fund of three hundred pounds
sterling in British Consuls (British Government Securities, the word being abbreviated from “Consolidated
Annuities”), the interest from this fund to be set aside
for the delivery of the Preston lectures once each year.
The appointment of a Lecturer was left to the Grand
Master. These lectures were abandoned about 1860,
chiefly for the reason that they had been superseded by
the lectures of Hemming in the approved work of the
United Grand Lodge of England, when that body was
formed by the reunion of the Ancient and Moderns
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Because of this action of the Grand Lodge of Moderns, the Lodge of Antiquity severed its connection with
body, after dismissing from its membership three brethren who had made the original complaint against Preston, entered in relations with the revived Grand Lodge
of All England at York, and formed what was known as
the “Grand Lodge of England South of the River Trent.”
The controversy with the Grand Lodge of Moderns was
settled in 1787, and Preston was reinstated, all his honors and dignities restored, whereupon he resumed his
Masonic activities. He organized the Order of Harodim,
a Society of Masonic Scholars, in which he taught his
lectures and through this medium the lectures came to
America and became the foundation for our Monitors.
To fully grasp the significance of Preston’s labors
we must understand the conditions in England at the
time he lived. The seventeenth century had been one of
marked differences of opinion on the subjects of government, religion and economic conditions. The eighteenth century, following the accession of Prince George
of Hanover to the throne of England as King George I,
witnessed an era of peace and prosperity in that country.
With the exception of the wars against the French and
later the Revolution in America, England met no obstacles in her conquests of trade. The strife of the opening
years of the century calmed down, and the people became adjusted to their new conditions. It became a period of formalism. Literature, which thrived under the
patronage of the wealthy, partook of an ancient classical
nature, spirit being subordinated to form and style. Detailed perfection of form was insisted upon in every activity, and undoubtedly the insistence for a letter-perfect
ritualism, still so apparent in Freemasonry, had its origin in the closing years of the eighteenth century.
While the well-to-do classes lived in comfort and
ease, the laboring and farming classes had not yet entirely emerged from the adverse conditions confronting them for so many decades. True, the cessation of
wars, and the development of domestic and foreign
trade also had an influence in the circles not actively
participating in the new development. A spirit of freedom and independence continued to express itself.
Public education as we know it today, however, did
not then exist. The schools were for the children of the
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recognized as the foremost Masonic Scholar of his generation. While he did not wear the purple of the Modern Grand Lodge in its highest stations, his contemporaries who had that honor have been forgotten, while
the name of William Preston is still preeminent in the
annals of Freemasonry.
Equality of opportunity, as Freemasonry stands for
it, means equality of opportunity for service. The honors of office are not the Masonic test of service. He who
contributes to the Mason’s search for light, light that
will enable the Craftsman to more intelligently and efficiently serve his God, his Country, his Neighbor, his
Family and Himself is rendering the most enduring
quality of service. This was true in Preston’s time. It is
equally true in ours. Fortunate is the lodge that has a
modern Preston in its membership, who seeks to lead
the Craft in its clearer understanding of the symbolism and teachings of Freemasonry to the end that Freemasons of today may sustain in the high standard of
effective and unselfish service to mankind which has
characterized and distinguished the Fraternity in the
generations and ages gone.
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in 1813. The Preston work still survives, however, in
the United States, although greatly modified by such
American ritualists as Webb, Cross, Barney and others.
Had Preston not attained Masonic eminence
through his efforts in other fields, his work in revising
the lectures alone would entitle him to the plaudits and
gratitude of the Craft. Considering these old lectures
in the light of our present day knowledge, and granting
that they might be corrected and revised, it must be remembered that Preston’s work was a tremendous step
forward when we consider the spirit and conditions
of his day. He was one of the first men to influence a
change from the social and convivial standards which
prevailed in the old lodges, and to make them centers
for more practical and enduring efforts. His own progress in the Craft is an illustration of its democracy, and
an illustration of the equality of opportunity existing
for those who will apply themselves to the problems
confronting the Fraternity in our own times. From a
position as the youngest Entered Apprentice standing
in the North East corner of his lodge, he progressed
step by step until he reached a place where he was
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Volume 1, Number 3, March 1923
The Roll Call
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problem of the relationship between Capitol and Labor,
between the man who toils with his hands and the man
who toils with the problems of investment and organized production. Not only is it consistent with the
spirit of Freemasonry that we study the problems that
confront us in this field of human endeavor, but it is
imperative that we make our contribution to the righteous solution of those problems.
As a Fraternity we are not strangers to the field in
which these problems are found, and in which they
must be solved. No organization is more logically
equipped to discuss the questions involved in the relationships of Capitol and Labor than is Freemasonry, for
we are a fraternity which, from its ancient beginning,
and all through the succeeding centuries, has exalted
the supreme value of constructive industry.
We are historically equipped to discuss the problem,
for in the fact of our origin and in the symbolism of
our degrees we are builders. We are not concerned with
the time honored scholastic controversy as to the accurate link between brethren of the three-fold covenant
of today and the ancients. It should be sufficient that,
whether our descent can be traced without a break or
not, we are inseparably the descendants in tradition, in
much of form, and in more of the spirit of men who
were toilers and whose whole fellowship and scheme
of fraternal association was based on toil. Essential
Freemasonry began in Solomon’s day in a unique, efficient, and fine-spirited industrial organization. That
tradition was embodied in the remarkable record of
the Craftsmen’s guilds and the companies of Cathedral
builders who so united faith and imagination with skill
as to give us those majestic edifices which some one
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rom day to day, from generation to generation, the Great Architect of the Universe
draws upon his Trestleboard the designs for the
slowly-rising Temple of civilization. Mankind are his
workmen, and Freemasons, by training and equipment, should be Master Workmen, capable of the
highest character of workmanship and the greatest degree of loyalty and understanding of all who toil upon
the Temple or contribute of their means and leadership to its completion.
As the Temple arises, as the magnificence and beauty
of the structure become more apparent and as the number of workmen increases, numerous and perplexing
problems develop, especially as to the mutual relationships and rewards of those in authority and those who
toil. Envy of and ambition for power, impatience, selfish greed for quick rewards, enter into the minds and
shape the motives of men, making them forget that no
one class can build the Temple without the other; that
honest workmen seek and receive rewards only for work
well done, and the contention and strife always result in
tragedy – and in a roll call of the workmen inevitably
discloses and condemns the contentious and unfaithful.
There is today a great confusion in and about our
modern Temple of Industry, and out of it problems
present themselves which can only be solved in the
light and spirit of fundamental truth: The spirit and
intent of Freemasonry have ever been directed to the
search for truth and its applications to those problems
which continually effect the welfare of mankind. It is,
therefore, entirely within the scope of Masonic thought
and present day Masonic service to turn our attention,
as men and Masons, to the immediate and very acute
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has fitly described as being “Music, frozen into stone.” are challenged by the supine pessimism of those who
In modern times our ranks have known men who la- assert that industrial conditions can never be otherwise
bored physically as well as men whose industry was real than contentious. They take the attitude of tolerant
though they were workers with the stuff of mind and cynicism, and would have us believe that strife is the
heart. Few are the Freemasons who have not known at normalcy of industrial conditions. They argue for inevsome time what it means to labor operatively as well as itability of friction in the world of production, even as
speculatively. Such men as Washington, Franklin, Mar- sixty years ago men argued that slavery might be regushall, and all our statesmen and public servants, were lated but never wiped out. But pessimism and the toltoilers whose mental and moral industry laid well the erant and smiling sneer of the cynic have no real place
stones in our Temple of human freedom and happiness. in the program of forward-moving Freemasonry. The
We are committed to the thoughtful consideration spirit of Freemasonry asserts that industrial quarrels
of the social phases of industry by reason of our ide- can find the norm of peace. As individuals we may hinalism and our fraternal philosophy. Our body of truth der or delay the solution, or we may aid its speedy and
and our program of ideals are both defined and set happy attainment; but the right adjustment between
forth in the terms and symbols of the toiler; for the the man who toils at the top and the man who toils
material uses of the gauge, the mallet, the square, level, at the bottom will and must come. To deny this is to
plumb, compass, and trowel bring to us a practical so- deny the very hope upon which fraternalism is founded,
for we are in existence that we may organize and make
cial, moral and spiritual message.
Nor is it too much to say that we are compelled to effective that “society of friends and brother among
the consideration of this theme by reason of our own whom no contention should ever exist, save that noble
present fraternal ambition and aspiration; for no field contention, or rather emulation, of who best can work
of human accomplishment demands so clearly and in- and best agree.” To assert or surrender to the contrary is
sistently a program of constructive thinking and real to discourage the chief effort and to deny the chief observice as does that of Industry. By the memory of our jective of our idealism. If a right solution is not possible
past and by the need of our present we are called to the and attainable, then Freemasonry in the domain of fraattainment of better and happier social relationships. ternalism is erected upon a false premise and is pursuThat attainment is the goal of all fraternal effort and the ing the mockery of a foolish dream.
“It is in the power of Freemasonry, secondly, to point out
lack of it the cause of all strife in the social and industhe way which leads to the solution of the difficulties betrial scheme of things.
If all this be true, then what possible message can tween Capitol and Labor.” We may not be wise enough
Freemasonry bring to all men in these days of compli- to authoritatively prophecy the exact form of the final
cated industrial and social anxieties? It is recognized solution. When evolved – and it will be evolved, not crethat Freemasonry has a wealth of truth to draw upon ated – it will be the cumulative product of many minds
and that the Institution is qualified to voice many es- and the program of a unified and sympathetic wealth of
wisdom. We may be confident, however, of the direcsentials which seem altogether applicable.
In the first place Freemasonry must declare with- tion in which the solution may be found, and much of
out qualification that there is a solution for the prob- the certainty of our conviction we owe to the lessons
lem. Holding the principles which we hold as a Fra- learned at the Altar of our Fraternal Covenant. We can
ternity, we must steadfastly assert the possibility of a best express that conviction first in its negative form.
A right social and industrial relationship and a lastsolution and as steadfastly we must be dedicated to the
attainment of that solution. We must be practical and ing industrial peace will not be attained by the enforced
aggressive idealists. We must be constructive and per- ignorance of the toiler. Many there are who assert that
sistent optimists. We must proclaim the possibility of the demands of the organized laborer are due to the fact
better things in the domain of human relationship. We that he is over-educated. Few utter the doctrine aloud,
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but secretly they recognize that the more ignorant the and hateful dissention we enter the realm of the moral
mass of men the more supine and quiescent they re- and spiritual; and we find that “our process of cure is a
main under social and political inequity. They are right process of education. We shall achieve industrial peace
as to ignorance being a state which tends to that sort only by education.” Not education of just one side but
of peace which is founded upon crushed souls, stunted of both sides. Not education of a part of the man but
intellects, and brute surrender to the crack of some in- education of the whole of the man. Not merely or even
dustrially autocratic whip, which results from the abject principally an education of the minds of men, but sudarkness of ignorance. Freemasonry cries out: “This is premely an education of the hearts of men. Our only
no solution! ‘Ye Shall Know The Truth, and the Truth hope is the creation of a right spirit in the very life of
Shall Make You Free!’ We seek that high and holy peace the race; and that is more largely a matter of the heart
which arises from the equitable agreement of free men than of the head.
We recall an ancient legend that delineates the piti– men who are free in speech, in faith and in franchise!”
Nor will our problem be solved by the erection of ful and sordid folly of some discontented workmen.
some experimental and untried system of human gov- Three of them plunged into the degradation of crime
ernment. The faults which we seek to remedy are not and the shame of violence, not because they were not
found in the mechanical arrangement of government. skilled workmen, not for any lack, so far as we know,
We challenge our Bolshevist neighbor with the state- of some portion of “Brains,” but chiefly because their
ment that the faulty operation of the plumbing is not spirit was wrong. Their attitude was wrong. Their
remedied by burning down the house. Political, social, hearts were wrong. They had not the vision of sanctity,
and industrial wrongs will not be corrected by the de- the dignity and the true reward for workmanship. They
struction of constituted authority and the substitution were working not for the joy of work and its producof untried and fanatical experiments. A sure remedy is tive result, but solely for the wage they proposed to depossible under our present government and with the mand. They came asking a full days wage for only a parright use and direction of our present essential and tial return. The Temple was not finished, but they must
be paid, whether or no; and, dominated by their pastime-proven institutions.
In still another direction will we vainly seek peace. It sion for personal advantage and reward, they plunged
will not be found upon the road to violence. Peace will into the black darkness of crime and treachery. When
not be obtained by the use of force or compulsion as a the roll was called it was found that there were twelve
working tool in the hand of either party to our present others who did not follow the three into that awful exindustrial situation. It will not come by ignoring public perience because they were workmen who suddenly
interest, by murder, sabotage, boycotting, or intimida- had a vision of the real meaning of it all. They recanted
tion of free men on the one hand; nor by punitive legis- not only because of some cold calculation of intellect
lation, the employment of troops and armed guards, the but because the right spirit entered into their hearts. A
threatening flash of bayonets, or the imposition of judi- something deep within them responded to the appeal
cial mandate on the other hand. Grant that these may of loyalty. The high call of faith and duty did not sound
now seem to be the inevitable incidents on the present within their ears in vain; and they remained loyal to
abnormal and strained status of society; but surely any the leadership of one who was not merely a King but a
intelligence can perceive that victories thus gained and Brother and who led them out into a larger, finer, and
a peace thus established are both alike but temporary. more splendid service. They redeemed themselves by
One does not cure some surface eruption by a surface the new spirit in which they took up their task.
If the hearts of men are right, then in the ultimate
medication. That may suffice for the moment to arrest
the breaking out. To permanently cure you must seek social and industrial formula true justice and a real fraternity will be dominant factors. Not some shallow and
and treat the hidden point of focal infection.
When we turn, then, to the source of controversy empty conception of justice and fraternity, not a mere
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world, but in the fundamentals of the Fatherhood of
God and the Brotherhood of man we have light enough
to see us through the shadows. A great soul once caught
the vision of the real source of true optimism and courage when he cried out:
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gesture of affection, but a great, deep passion in the
hearts of men for equity and happy fellowship. What
we most need is a real spirit of toleration, a spirit of toleration which, while not nullifying the right to personal opinion and conviction, yet shall save us from being
so intent upon personal advantage as to lose sight of
our love for the person and the rights of our brother.
Such a conception of fraternity disseminated among
all men will aid us to love each other more than we
do our several social, economic, religious or political
doctrines. In that spirit we shall find readjustment, and
the resultant details of wages, hours, organization and
privileges will inevitably be sound. We are in no danger from men who disagree in judgment, but we may
well fear an antagonism of hearts marked by hate and
evil or selfish motive.
The achievement of this ideal will be accomplished
only when the rule of love shall hold its sway over us.
Not an empty imitation of affection or a mere pose, but
a love which is first of all a reverent affection for and
trust in God who is Father of us all and the resultant
consciousness of our kinship with all mankind. Though
the centuries Freemasonry has been one of the potent
factors in keeping bright in human hearts that Light of
Love, that Beacon of Brotherhood, which long ago issued forth from the Great Heart of Creation. It is now
the supreme privilege of every Freemason to hold that
flame of hope high and unextinguished. At this very
“Tide in the affairs of men” we are passing through dark
days of strife and perplexity in our industrial and social
If I Stoop,
Into a dark, tremendous sea of cloud,
It is but for a time; I press God’s lamp
Close to my heart; its splendor soon or late
Shall pierce the gloom; I shall emerge somewhere.
Let us repeat that verse in the plural form, and thus
epitomize the optimism that must be ours:
If we Stoop,
Into a dark tremendous sea of cloud,
It is but for a time; we press God’s lamp
Close to our hearts; its splendor soon or late
Shall pierce the gloom; we shall emerge somewhere.
The point of that emergence is hidden as yet in the
silent mystery of human destiny, but if we will courageously hold up God’s lamp of love and brotherhood,
we are justified in the assurance that mankind will
eventually emerge into a social order which shall know
not only a “Living” but a “Loving” wage; a social order
where the public well-being and the common prosperity shall be based upon the surer foundation of a sacred
public trust and an exalted sense of unselfish service.
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Volume 1, Number 4, April 1923
Our Public Schools
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understand how gigantic an enterprise it is, and how
rapidly it is growing.
It is from these points of view that we want to discuss the public school system. Your child goes through
the public school – how does he come out? You pay
more actual dollars and cents for the maintenance and
upbuilding of the public school than you do for any
other peace work that you are interested in as a taxpayer – what dividends do you get back? Your child is graduated from your high school – and what sort of a job
does he get? More important still, what kind of a job
does he hunt for?
We have the right of any stockholder to see what we
are getting for our money. We are going to give credit for every bit of constructive work that enters into
the product. We are going to charge every item which
properly belongs on the debit side of the ledger. We
are not going to admit that our efforts have been vain,
these seventy-five years. We are not going to indict the
management, except as we shall find ourselves wanting.
Let us begin our survey.
The community in which we live has invested thousands, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of
dollars, in our “plant.” Yet that plant is idle more than
three-fourths of the time. We admit that it should be
idle a part of the time – perhaps a little more than half.
But when the plant operates on a thirty hour a week
schedule for only thirty-six weeks, is it just to say – as
stockholders – that the idle time is out of proportion to
the working hours?
We are not saying that the children and their teachers should put in eight hours a day, twelve months in the
year. We are talking about our “plant” – the buildings.
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We are going to discuss, for a few moments, the
greatest business enterprise in which you and I
are jointly engaged. It is practically a new business, having been in existence, in a nation-wide way, only about
seventy-five years. The world knew nothing about this
business a hundred years ago, and some of our colonial
fathers scoffed at it as something which, if it could be
attained, was not worth the having. As a business, let us
analyze it for ourselves, carefully.
A careful analysis is justified. For this business is one
which has greater capital invested than any other enterprise in America. Tremendous amounts of real estate are owned. Great buildings house the shops. There
are officers in every city and town in the country. An
army of directors and workers is employed. Upon this
business is spent the majority of our peace-time taxes.
Into its factories goes the most precious material that
our nation yields. Out of it comes a product, the value
of which far exceeds our production of foodstuffs and
manufactures combined.
This business, Fellow Stockholders, is the American
Public School System.
The product of this “factory” is the education of
our children – your boys and girls, and mine. Upon
this product depends the future of America. We, as
a people, invest more money in it than in anything
else in which we are interested. The system is a corporation – and you and I own and operate it. When
we consider that the high school enrollment jumped
from 915,000 to 1,645,000 in eight years, and that only
a little more than seventy-five years ago there were
no high schools in this entire world, we begin to
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man or woman owning a share in this “Company” can
fail to realize that the cost of education is a productive
expenditure of money, that it will pay enormous dividends, and that in no sense of the word is it a charity!
It needs no argument to prove that the Public
School is “not” a place where political, religious or educational “Axes” are to be ground! There should be no
argument to prove that every one of us must understand and appreciate the value of the public service
rendered by teachers. They should know us, and mix
with us, and acquire a practical knowledge of the problems of life which we face, and which our children must
face. And it is infinitely more important that we know
the teachers into whose care we entrust our children. It
is worthwhile, from a dollar and cents standpoint, for
us to cultivate them, entertain them in our homes and
make them feel that they are being relied upon, and
that they can rely upon us!
We have spoken of “Americanism.” What does it
mean? What should it mean to our children? From this
standpoint what are the real needs of the Public School?
“Americanism” means Equality of Opportunity,” We
live in no feudal age. There are no Barons or Lords
of the Manor who hold us as chattels. Each man and
woman is a human soul, entitled to a fair chance. Inevitably we are bound to each other by the ties of brotherhood, and the future of our America depends upon
the growing of every boy and girl into a healthy, happy,
competent manhood and womanhood, able to cope
with the conditions that a citizen must face. Our Public
School system should fit children to take advantage of
their opportunities, and so make of themselves all that
ambition and thrift and character may hope to attain.
Universal education, more than anything else, must
be the goal of our republic. Upon this rest the foundations of government, for only through intelligent citizens can our government continue in the years to come.
The ban of factory production is returned goods –
goods which have been improperly manufactured and
are sent back to be worked over. Do we realize that
there can be returned goods in our schools? Have we
ever stopped to think that it costs as much to put a child
through the same grade twice as it does to put two children through once? Everything which helps the child
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Are we using them efficiently? Someone may say that
they are specially constructed, that they are not adaptable to the production of other things. Are we so sure?
Could they not be so adapted?
Then let us consider the managers, superintendents,
and foreman. They are the faculty. Assuming that they
are proficient, how about the way we handle them?
Would you permit half or more of your foreman and
responsible officers to shift from one plant to another every year? Would you expect them to be satisfied
and happy in an environment where they were unable
to become acquainted with their neighbors until the
year was up, or practically so? Would you care to have
a business in which all your skilled operatives were
changing every three years? Yet this is what happens
to your teachers. A large percentage of them shift from
place to place at the end of the school year; they know
little of the community in which they teach until the
school year is ended. Does this kind of organization develop proficiency?
The recent War brought out the woeful lack of even
the most elementary education in many young men of
draft age. The percentage of illiteracy was found to be
disgracefully high. Our government had to spend billions in training young men to understand and obey
orders. We paid an immense price to give elementary
education to these adults. Is it sound business sense to
allow the next generation to come out of the schools as
ignorant as these adult?
As good as our public school system is, we find that
there is a tremendous economic waste in its administration. Viewed from a business standpoint, can we afford
to let this go on? The Public School system ought in
any balanced scheme of things to link up very definitely,
not only with “Higher Education,” but with the home,
business, and community life. Failing in this, there is an
economic waste. The percentage of business and professional failures is an index of our school system. The
percentage of failures is too high.
No self-respecting citizen, no stockholder in this
great corporation of ours, needs to be told that the ideals of educated men and women must more and more be
made the ideals of all our people. This is what we ought
to mean when we speak of “Americanism.” No thinking
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importance if we, as parents, show him that we also believe. These enterprises are the links in the chain which
the teacher offers as a tie between the school and the
community. The community must not lose hold of its
end of the chain.
As individuals we have three ways in which we can
become a constructive force for the betterment of the
public Schools.
We can do it as voters, supporting measures which
benefit the Public Schools, and voting against the measures which are opposed to their welfare.
We can do it by making our lives touch the lives of
those directly connected with the schools. This does
not mean working through a committee or an association. It means finding out for ourselves what the
schools are doing. It means becoming acquainted with,
and learning to know, the aspirations and the abilities
of the teachers who guide the destinies of our children
during school hours.
Finally, we can give our support as parents. The child
is a healthy animal as a rule, and has very little natural
desire for an education. We must show him that the way
to success in the world lies down the long road of education. We must make this road reasonably attractive.
We must show him the education is his greatest asset.
The Public School which brings together the children of the rich and the poor alike is the one great agency which makes for a responsible citizenship. Our children must know that the right to go to a Public School
has been fought for. They must know what it costs in
terms of money and sacrifice. We must realize that on
the organization and influence of our Public School
system depends on the perpetuity of our Republic.
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to learn quickly is real economy. Only if a child is
healthy will he do the required work. Otherwise he will
hold back his classmates as well as himself. Health becomes the greatest possible economy and if there were
no other grounds for asking that supervision of health
be exercised over all children, this would be enough.
Our Public Schools can succeed only in proportion
to the cooperation which they receive from the community. We have spoken of effective organization. If
this is demanded by the community, we shall get the
worth of our money. If a community demands teachers
who believe in public education at State expense, the
demand will be supplied. If the people of a community
are determined that American ideals shall be instilled
into the minds of their children, rather that the vaporings of foreign agitators, the schools in that community
will have truly American teachers.
In return for all this, the community must do its
part. We must give the teacher a place among us. He or
she must feel at home with us because they come into
our homes. It is necessary for the teacher to know the
home background of the child if intelligent direction
is to be given. We cannot expect wholehearted work
without some measure of appreciation.
How long since you have attended any school activities? The enterprises which the teacher promotes
in order to show the child how to work with other
children, fit him for the part he is going to play in mature activity, and are as important as the work of the
class room. The success of these enterprises depends
upon your support, not only from the standpoint of
the money which is spent, but because the child will
have faith in this instruction and will believe in its
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Volume 1, Number 5, May 1923
Spirit of Masonry
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utside of the home and the House of
God there is nothing in this world more beautiful than the Spirit of Masonry. Gentle, gracious, and wise; its mission is to form mankind into a
great redemptive brotherhood, a league of noble and
free men enlisted in the radiant enterprise of working
out in time the love and will of the Eternal. Who is sufficient to describe a spirit so benign? With what words
may one ever hope to capture and detain that which
belongs of right to the genius of poetry and song, by
whose magic those elusive and impalpable realities find
embodiment and voice?
With picture, parable, and stately drama; Masonry
appeals to lovers of beauty bringing poetry and symbol
to the aid of philosophy and are to the service of character. Broad and tolerant in its teachings it appeals to
men of intellect, equally by the depths of its faith and
its pleas for liberty of thought – helping them to think
things through to a more satisfying and hopeful vision
of the meaning of life and the mystery of the world. But
its profoundest appeal, more eloquent than all others,
is to the deep heart of man out of which are the issues
of life and destiny. When all is said, it is as a man thinketh in his heart whether life be worthwhile or not, and
whether he is a help or a curse to his race.
Here lies the tragedy of our race:
Not that men are poor;
All men know something of poverty.
Not that men are wicked;
Who can claim to be good?
Not that all men are ignorant;
Who can boast that he is wise?
But that men are strangers!
Volume 1, Number 5, May 1923
Masonry if Friendship – friendship, first, with the
great Companion, of whom our own hearts tell us, who
is always nearer to us than we are to ourselves, and
whose inspiration and help is the greatest fact of human
experience. To be in harmony with his purposes, to be
open to His suggestions, to be conscious of fellowship
with Him – this is Masonry on its God-ward side. Then,
turning man-ward, friendship sums it all up. To be
friends with all men, however they may differ from us in
creed, color, or condition; to fill every human relation
with the spirit of friendship; is there anything more or
better than this that the wisest and best men can hope
to do? Such is the Spirit of Masonry; such is its ideal,
and if to realize it all at once is denied us, surely it means
much to see it, love it, and labor to make it come true.
Nor is the spirit of friendship a mere sentiment held
by a sympathetic, and therefore unstable, fraternity,
which would dissolve the concrete features of humanity
into a vague blur of misty emotion. No; it has its roots
in a profound philosophy which sees that the universe
is friendly, and that men must learn to be friends if they
would live as befits the world in which they live, as well
as their own origin and destiny. For, since God is the
life of all that was, is, and is to be; and since we are all
born into the world by one high wisdom and one vast
love, we are brothers to the last man of us, forever! For
better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in
health, and even after death us do part, all men are held
together by ties of spiritual kinship, sons of one eternal
friend. Upon this fact human fraternity rests, and it is
the basis of the plea of Masonry, not only for freedom,
but also for friendship among men.
Thus friendship, so far from being a mush of
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concessions, is in fact the constructive genius of the their fellows, and the men of one sect were sure that
universe. Love is ever the Builder, and those who have the men of all other sects were wrong – and doomed to
done most to establish the City of God on earth have be lost. Thus, when real mountains no longer separated
been the men who loved their fellow men. Once you let man from man, mountains were made out of molehills
this spirit prevail, the wrangling sects will be lost in the – mountains of immemorial misunderstanding not yet
great league of those who love in the service of those moved into the sea!
Barriers of race, of creed, of caste, of training and inwho suffer. No man will then revile the faith in which
his neighbor finds help for today and hope for the mor- terest separate men today, as if some malign genius were
row; pity will smite him mute, and love will teach him bent on keeping man from his fellows; begetting suspithat God is found in many ways, by those who seek him cion, uncharitableness, and hate. Still there is war, waste,
with honest hearts. Once you let this spirit rule in the and woe! Yet all the while men have been unfriendrealm of trade the law of the jungle will cease, and men ly, and, therefore unjust and cruel, only because they
will strive to build a social order in which all men may are unacquainted. Amidst feud, faction, and folly; Mahave the opportunity “To Live, and to Live Well,” as Ar- sonry, the oldest and most widely spread order, toils in
istotle defined the purpose of society. Here is the basis behalf of friendship; uniting men upon the only basis
of that magical stability aimed at by the earliest artists upon which they can ever meet with dignity. Each lodge
when they sought to build for eternity, by imitating on is an oasis of equality and goodwill in a desert of strife,
working to weld mankind into a great league of sympaearth the House of God.
thy and service, which, by the terms of our definition
ur human history, saturated with blood seeks to exhibit even now on a small scale. At its Altar
and blistered with tears, is the story of man mak- men meet as man to man, without vanity and without
ing friends with man. Society has evolved from a feud pretense, without fear and without reproach; as tourists
into a friendship by the slow growth of love and the crossing the Alps tie themselves together so that if one
welding of man, first to his kin, and then to his kind. slips, all may hold him up. No tongue can tell the meanThe first man who walked in the red dawn of time lived ing of such a ministry, no pen can trace the influence in
every man for himself, his heart a sanctuary of suspi- melting the hardness of the world into pity and gladness.
The Spirit of Masonry! He who would describe that
cions, every man feeling that every other man was his
foe, and therefore his prey. So there was war, strife and spirit must be a poet, a musician, and a seer – a masbloodshed. Slowly there came to the savage a gleam of ter of melodies, echoes, and long far-sounding cadencthe truth that it is better to help than to hurt, and he es. Now, as always, it toils to make man better, to reorganized clans and tribes. But the tribes were divid- fine his thought and purify his sympathy, to broaden
ed by rivers and mountains, and the men on one side his outlook, to lift his altitude, to establish in amplitude
of the river felt that the men on the other side were and resoluteness his life in all its relations. All its great
their enemies. Again there was war, pillage, and sorrow. history, its vast accumulations of tradition, its simple
Great empires arose and met in the shock of conflict, faith and its solemn rites, its freedom and its friendship
leaving trails of skeletons across the earth. Then came are dedicated to the high moral ideal, seeking to tame
the great roads, reaching out with their stony clutch the tiger in man, and bring his wild passions into obediand bringing the ends of the earth together. Men met, ence to the will of God. It has no other mission than to
mingled, passed and repassed; and learned that human exalt and ennoble humanity, to bring light out of darknature is much the same everywhere, with hopes and ness, beauty out of angularity; to make every hard-won
fears in common. Still there were many things to di- inheritance more secure, every sanctuary more sacred,
vide and estrange men from each other, and the earth every hope more radiant!
The Spirit of Masonry! Aye, when that spirit has its
was full of bitterness. Not satisfied with natural barriers, men erected high walls of sect and caste, to exclude way upon earth, as at last it surely will, society will be a
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Spirit of Masonry21
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When the War Drum throbs no longer,
And the Battle Flags are furled;
In the Parliament of man,
The Federation of the World.
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anifestly, since love is the law of life, if
men are to be won from hate to love, if those
who doubt and deny are to be wooed to faith, if the
race is ever to be led and lifted into a life of service, it
must be by the fine art of Friendship. Inasmuch as this
is the purpose of Masonry, its mission determines the
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Volume 1, Number 5, May 1923
method not less than the spirit of its labor. Earnestly it
endeavors to bring men – first the individual man, and
then, so far as is possible, those who are united with
him – to love one another, while holding aloft, in picture and dream, that Temple of character which is the
noblest labor of life to build in the midst of the years,
and which will outlast time and death. Thus it seeks to
reach the lonely inner life of man where the real battles
are fought, and where the issues of destiny are decided, now with shouts of victory, now with sobs of defeat.
What a ministry to a young man who enters its Temple
in the morning of life, when the dew of heaven is upon
his days and the birds are singing in his heart!
From the wise lore of the East Max Muller translated a parable which tells how the Gods, having stolen
from man his divinity, met in council to discuss where
they should hide it. One suggested that it be carried to
the other side of the earth and buried; but, it was pointed out that man is a great wanderer, and that he might
find the lost treasure on the other side of the earth. Another proposed that it be dropped into the depths of
the sea; but, the same fear was expressed – that man,
in his insatiable curiosity, might dive deep enough to
find even there. Finally, after a space of silence, the oldest and wisest of the Gods said: “Hide it in man himself, as that is the last place he will ever think to look for
it.” And so it was agreed, all seeing at once the subtle
and wise strategy. Man did wander the earth, for ages,
seeking in all places high and low, far and near, before
he thought to look within himself for the divinity he
sought. At last, slowly, dimly, he began to realize that
what he thought was far off, hidden in the “The Pathos
of Distance, is nearer than the breath he breathes, even
in his own heart.”
Here lies the great secret of Masonry – that it makes
a man aware of that divinity within him, where from his
whole life takes its beauty and meaning, and inspires
him to follow and obey it. Once a man learns this deep
secret, life is new, and the old world is a valley all dewy
to the dawn with a lark song over it. There never was a
truer saying than, the religion of a man is the chief fact
concerning him. By religion is meant not the creed to
which a man will subscribe, or otherwise give his assent; not that necessarily; often not that at all – since
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vast communion of kindness and justice, business a system of human service, law a rule of beneficence; home
will be more holy, the laughter of childhood more joyous, and the temple of prayer mortised and tenanted in
a simple faith. Evil, injustice, bigotry, greed, and every
vile and slimy thing that defiles and defames humanity will skulk into the dark, unable to bear the light of
a just, wiser, more merciful order. Industry will be upright, education prophetic, and religion not a shadow,
but a real Presence, when man has become acquainted
with man and has learned to worship God by serving
his fellows. When Masonry is victorious every tyranny will fall, every Bastille crumble, and man will be not
only unfettered in mind and hand, but free of heart to
walk erect in the light and liberty of the truth.
Toward a great friendship, long foreseen by Masonic
faith, the world is slowly moving, amid difficulties and
delays, reactions and reconstructions. Though long deferred, of the day, which will surely arrive, when nations will be reverent in the use of freedom, just in the
exercise of power, humane in the practice of wisdom;
when no man will ride over the rights of his fellows;
when no woman will be made forlorn, no little child
wretched by bigotry or greed, Masonry has ever been
a prophet. Nor will she ever be content until all the
threads of human fellowship are woven into one mystic cord of friendship, encircling the earth and holding
the race in unity of spirit and the bonds of peace; as in
the will of God it is one in the origin and end. Having
outlived empires and philosophies, having seen generations appear and vanish, it will yet live to see the travail
of its soul, and be satisfied –
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accept the joys of life with glee, and endure its ills with
patient valor; how to look upon the folly of man and
not forget his nobility – in short, how to live cleanly,
kindly, open-eyed and unafraid in a sane world, sweet
of heart and full of hope. Who so lays this lucid and
profound wisdom to heart, and lives by it, will have little regret, and nothing to fear, when the evening shadows fall. Happy the young man who in the morning of
his years makes it his guide, philosopher, and friend.
Such is the ideal of Masonry, and fidelity to all that
is holy demands that we give ourselves to it, trusting
the power of truth, the reality of love, and the sovereign worth of character. For only as we incarnate that
ideal in real life and activity does it become real tangible, and effective. God works for man through man
and seldom, if at all, in any other way. He asks for our
voices to speak His Truth, for our hands to do his work
here below – sweet voices and clean hands to make liberty and love prevail over injustice and hate. Not all of
us can be learned or famous, but each of us can be loyal
and true of heart, undefiled by evil, undaunted by error,
faithful and helpful to our fellow souls. Life is a capacity for the highest – an eager incessant quest of truth;
a noble utility, a lofty honor, a wise freedom, a genuine service – that through us the Spirit of Masonry may
grow and be glorified.
When is a man a Mason? When he can look out over
the rivers, the hills, and the far horizon with a profound
sense of his own littleness in the vast scheme of things,
and yet have faith, hope, and courage – which is the root
of every virtue. When he knows that down in his heart
every man is as noble, as vile, as divine, as diabolic, and
as lonely as himself; and seeks to know, to forgive and
to love his fellow man. When he knows how to sympathize with men in their sorrows, yea, even in their sins –
knowing that each man fights a hard fight against many
odds. When he has learned how to make friends and to
keep them, and above all how to keep friends with himself. When he loves flowers, can hunt the birds without
a gun, and feels the thrill of an old forgotten joy when he
hears the laugh of a little child. When he can be happy
and high-minded amid the meaner drudgeries of life.
When star-crowned trees, and the glint of sunlight on
the flowing waters, subdue him like the thought of one
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we see men of all degrees of worth and worthlessness
signing all kinds of creeds. No; the religion of a man
is that which he practically believes, lays to heart, acts
upon, and thereby knows concerning this mysterious
universe and his duty and destiny in it. That is in all
cases the primary thing in him, and creatively determines all the rest; that is his religion. It is, then, of vital
importance what faith, what vision, what conception of
life a man lays to heart, and acts upon.
At the bottom, a man is what his thinking is, thoughts
being the artists who give color to our days. Optimists
and pessimists live in the same world, walk under the
same sky, and observe the same facts. Skeptics and believers look up at the same great stars – the stars that
shone in Eden and will flash again in Paradise. Clearly
the difference between them is a difference not of fact,
but of faith – of insight, outlook, and point of view – a
difference of inner attitude and habit of thought with
regard to the worth and use of life. By the same taken,
ant influence which reaches and alters that inner habit
and bias of mind, and changes it from doubt to faith,
from fear to courage, from despair to sunburst hope,
has wrought the most benign ministry which a mortal
may enjoy. Every man has a train of thought on which
he rides when he is alone; and the worth of his life to
himself and others, as well as its happiness, depend
upon the direction in which that train is going, the baggage it carries, and the country through which it travels.
If, then, Masonry can put that inner train of thought
on the right track, freight it with precious treasure, and
start it on the way to the City of God, what other or
higher ministry can it render to a man? And that is what
it dies for any man who will listen to it, love it, and lay
its truth to heart.
High, Fine, Ineffably rich and beautiful are the faith
and vision which Masonry gives to those who foregather at its Altar, bringing to them in picture, parable, and
symbol the lofty and pure truth wrought out through
ages of experience, tested by time, and found to be valid
for the conduct of life. By such teaching, if they have
the heart to heed it, men become wise, learning how to
be both brave and gentle, faithful, and free; how to renounce superstition and retain faith; how to keep a fine
poise of reason between falsehood of extremes; how to
The Short Talk Bulletin
Spirit of Masonry23
most forlorn fellow mortal and see something beyond
sin. When he knows how to pray, how to love, and how
to hope. When he has kept faith with himself, with his
fellow man, with his God; in his hand a sword for evil,
in his heart a bit of a song – glad to live, but not afraid to
die! Such a man has found the only real secret of Masonry, and the one which it is trying to give to all the world.
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much loved and long dead. When no voice of distress
reaches his ears in vain, and no hands seeks his aid without response. When he finds good in every faith that
helps any man to lay hold of divine things and sees majestic meanings in life, whatever the name of that faith
may be. When he can look into a wayside puddle and
see something beyond mud, and into the face of the
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Volume 1, Number 5, May 1923
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Volume 1, Number 6, June 1923
Robert Burns
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it. The doves perching on the eaves of a stone chapel
opposite may know something of it. The Memory of
Burns – every man’s, every boy’s, every girl’s head carries snatches of his songs, and they say them by heart;
and what is strangest of all, never learned them from a
book, but from mouth to mouth. They are the property
and the solace of mankind!”
In a tiny two-roomed cottage, clay-built and thatchroofed, on the banks of the Doon, in the district of Kyle,
two miles south of the town of Ayr, in Scotland, Robert Burns was born on January 25th, 1759. It was a peasant home, such as he afterward described in “The Cotter’s Saturday Night,” in which poverty was consecrated
by piety, where the father was a priest of faith and the
mother a guardian angel of the holy things of life. So
far from as schools were concerned, his education was
limited to grammar, writing and arithmetic. Later he
picked up a little Latin, a smattering of French, and
some knowledge of English and classic poets. But he
knew the Book of Nature, leaf by leaf, and the strange
scroll of the Human Heart, as only the swift insight of
genius can read them.
At the age of twenty-two Burns was initiated into
the Mysteries of Freemasonry, in St. David’s Lodge at
Tarbolton, July 4th, 1781. Lockhart says that he was introduced to the Lodge by John Rankine. The minute
recording his initiation reads: “Sederunt for July 4th.
Robert Burns in Lochly was entered an Apprentice. Jo
Norman, Master.” The second and third degrees were
conferred on the same evening, in the month of October following his initiation. Six years later he was made
a Knights Templar as well as a Royal Arch Mason in Eyemouth, as under the old Regime the two were always
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reemasonry has no greater name than
Robert Burns. If there are those who question
his investiture as Poet Laureate of the Canongate
Kilwinning Lodge, owing to the absence of certain documentary evidence, no one denies that he was, and is,
the greatest poet of Freemasonry, the singer alike of its
faith and its friendship, its philosophy and its fun, its
passion and its prophecy. Nay, more; he was the Laureate, of the hopes and dreams of the lowly of every land.
Higher tribute there is none for any man than to
say, justly, that the world is gentler and more joyous for
his having lived; and that may be truly said of Robert
Burns, whose very name is an emblem of pity, joy, and
the magnetism of Brotherly Love. It is therefore that
men love Burns, as much for his weakness as for his
strength, and all the more because he was such an unveneered human being. It is given to but few men thus
to live in the hearts of their fellows; and today, from
Ayr to Sidney, from Chicago to Calcutta, the memory
of Burns is not only a fragrance, but a living force uniting men of many lands into a fellowship of Liberty Justice and Charity. “The Memory of Burns!” cried Emerson, “I am afraid Heaven and earth have taken too
good care of it to leave anything to say. The west winds
are murmuring it. Open the windows behind you and
hearken to the incoming tide, what the waves say of it.
The doves perching on the eaves of a stone chapel opposite may know something about it.
The Memory of Burns – every man’s, every boy’s,
every girl’s head carries snatches of his songs, afraid
heaven ad earth have taken too good care of it to leave
anything to say. Open the windows behind you and
hearken to the incoming tide, what the waves say of
The Short Talk Bulletin
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“Ye Sons of Auld Killie, assembled by Willie,
To follow the noble vocation;
Your thrifty old mother has scarce such another,
To sit in that honored station.
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As praying’s the ton of your fashion;
A prayer from the muse, you may well excuse,
“Tis seldom her favorite passion.
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Ye powers who preside, o’er the wind and the tide,
Who mark each element’s border;
Who formed this frame with beneficent aim,
Whose sovereign statute is order;
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Within this dear mansion may wayward contention,
Or withered envy ne’er enter;
May secrecy round be the mystical bound,
And Brotherly Love be the center.”
“Robert Burns, Poet, from Mauchline, a member of St. James, Tarbolton, was made an Honorary Member of this Lodge.”
“(Sgd.) Will Parker.”
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The minutes of this meeting concluded as follows:
Volume 1, Number 6, June 1923
the designation “Poet,” and to honor him with honorary membership.
Besides being a faithful and enthusiastic attendant
upon the meetings of his own Lodge, Burns was a frequent visitor at Lodge when away from home. It is said
that, with a very few exceptions, all his patrons and acquaintances were members of the Fraternity.
Burns is described at this time as nearly five feet ten
inches in height, and of a form agile as well as strong;
his high forehead shaded with black, curling hair, his
eyes large, dark, full of bright intelligence, his face vividly expressive. His careless dress and untaught manners
gave an impression of coarseness at first, but this was
forgotten in the charm of his personality, and his face in
repose had a calm thoughtfulness akin to melancholy.
Full of fun and fire, affable and the best of good company, his superior mind did not make him supercilious,
and he loved more than all else, a festival that was half
frolic and a feast where joy and good will were guests.
Alas, drinking was a habit in the Scotland of those
days, to a degree we can hardly imagine, as much in the
Church as in the Lodge; and it made the bitter tragedy of Robert Burns. Truth obliges us to admit that his
moral failure was early and pitiful, due alike to his environment and to a fatal frailty of which made him fitful,
unstable, and a prey to every whim of fancy and of passion. It is an awful risk to be endowed with the genius
of a Burns; it digs deep pitfalls for the man to whom it
is given. Yet, if in his later years he was a degraded man
of genius, he was never a man of degraded genius. The
poison did not enter his song. Allan Cunningham was
right when he said: “Few men had so much of the Poet
in them, and few poets so much of the man; the man
was probably less pure than he ought to have been, but
the poet was pure and bright to the end.”
So, and naturally so, men are willing to hide with
a veil of charity the debris of character scattered along
the starry path of Burns. On reading his poems Byron
exclaimed: “What an antithetical mind! Tenderness,
roughness, delicacy, coarseness, sentiments, sensuality; dirt and deity – all mixed up in one compound of
inspired clay!” But that might pass for a description of
mankind in general, and of Burns in particular. If Burns
was a sinner he was in that akin to ourselves, as God
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given together. By this time he had won some fame as
a poet, and the higher degrees were given him in token
both of his fame as a poet and his enthusiasm as a Mason.
On July 27th, 1784, Burns was elected Depute Master of St. James Lodge, Tarbolton, a position which he
held until St. John’s Day 1788.
He was made an honorary member of St. John
Lodge No. 22, Kilmarnock, on October 26th, 1786.
Major William Parker, the Master of St. John Lodge, became a great friend of Burns, and subscribed for thirtyfive copies of the first edition of his poems. He is the
“Willie” in the song “Ye Sons of Auld Killie” (a contraction of Kilmarnock) composed and sung by Burns on
the occasion of his admission as an honorary member
of St. John Lodge:
26Unknown
Then at the balance let’s be mute,
We can never adjust it;
What’s done we partly may compute,
But know not what’s resisted.
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By the same token, no great poet whose name is
linked with our Craft ever owed more to Freemasonry, or gave more to it. More intimately than any other
he was identified with its life, its genius and its ideals.
Its teachings moved his thought; its spirit inspired his
song; its genius nurtured that love of freedom and Fraternity which he set to everlasting music. So much is
this true, that it remains a marvel to this day how Shairp
could have written a biography of Burns without once
mentioning his membership in the Craft. In the gentle air of Freemasonry he found refuge from hardship
and heaviness of spirit; and its fellowship served to
shelter him from the poisoned arrows of petty bigots
who were unworthy to untie his shoes – men of a kind
known in every age, whose hard-heartedness was clad
in unctuous hypocrisy.
Surely, if ever of any one, it can be said of Robert
Burns, that his soul goes marching on. He was the harbinger of the nineteenth century, the poet of the rights
and reign of the common people, whom, it has been
said, God must love because he made so many of them.
The earth was fresh upon the tomb of George Washington when that century was born; it discovered Lincoln
and buried him with infinite regret. But its triumphant
melody first found voice in the songs of Robert Burns,
as the Greek singer inspired Patriarch with the fire
which kindled the Revival of Learning, and out of the
inertia of the Middle Ages created modern times. So
when Taine, the French critic, came to account for that
age he found that it’s spirit “Broke First in the Scotch
Peasant, Robert Burns.” – a man of all men most fitted
to give it voice, because “scarcely ever was seen together more of misery and of talent.”
There are those who dream of a vague blur of
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cosmopolitanism, in which all local loyalties, all heroic national genius shall be merged and forgotten. Not
so Robert Burns. He was distinctively a national poet,
striking deep roots in his native soil, and, for that reason, touching a chord so haunting that it echoes forever. This at least is true; a man who is not deeply rooted
somewhere – to whom one spot on earth is not a little
dearer, and the sky over it a little bluer – will not be of
much use anywhere. When Burns appeared the spirit of
Scotland was a low ebb. Her people were crushed and
her ancient fire almost quenched. Her scholars blushed
if they used her dialect. It was at such a time that a GodEndowed singer took up his harp, inspired by the history of his people, the traditions of Wallace and Bruce
stirring him like a passion, his soul attuned to the old
ballads of love and daring, singing the simple life of his
nation in its vivid and picturesque language. He struck
with a delicate but strong hand the deep and noble feelings of his countrymen and somewhere upon his variegated robe of song will be found embroidered the life,
the faith, the genius of his people. No wonder the men
loved a poet, and make his home at once a throne of
melody and a shrine of national glory.
Because he was so deeply rooted in the soil of his
own land; because he was so sweetly, sadly, joyously –
yea, and even sinfully – human, his spirit and appeal
are universal, for the human heart beats everywhere
the same, and by loyalty to the genius of our own country we best serve our race. His passion for liberty, his
affirmation of the nobility of man, his sense if dignity of labor, his pictures of the pathos and the hard lot
of the lowly, find response in every breast where beats
the heart of a man. It is thus that all men love Burns,
for it was he who taught, as few have taught since the
Son of Man lodged with the fishermen by the sea, the
brotherhood of man and the kinship of all breathing
things. Such singers live as long as men love life, and
their words become a part of the sacred scriptures of
the human heart.
This is no time to deal in literary criticism – a dreary business at best, a dismal business at worst. It is by
all agreed that Robert Burns was a lyric poet of the
first order, if not the greatest songwriter of the world.
Draw a line from Shakespeare to Browning, and he is
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knows, a little good and a little bad, a little weak and a
little strong, foolish when he thought he was wise, and
wise, often, when he feared he was foolish. So we may
give Burns the charity which he prayed for others:
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Volume 1, Number 6, June 1923
woven of beauty, mystery and sorrow. A flower crushed
in the budding, a field mouse turned out of his home by
a plowshare, a wounded hare limping along the road to
dusty death, or the memory of a tiny bird who sang for
him in the days agone, touched him to tears, and made
him feel the old hurt and heartache of the world.
The poems of Burns did not grow; they awoke complete. He was a child of the open air, and about all his
songs there is an outdoor feeling – never a smell of the
lamp. He saw nature with the swift glances of a child
– saw beauty in the fold of clouds, in the slant of trees,
in the lilt and glint of flowing waters, in the immortal
game of hide-and-seek played by sunbeams and shadows, in the mists trailing over the hills. The sigh of the
wind in the forest filled him with a kind of wild, sad joy,
and the tender face of a mountain daisy was like the
thought of one much loved and long dead. The throb
of his heart was warm in his words, and it was a heart
in which he carried an alabaster box of pity. He had a
sad life and soul of fire, the instincts of an angel in the
midst of hard poverty; yet he lived with dash and daring, sometimes with folly, and, we must add, – else we
do not know Burns – with a certain bubbling joyousness, despite his tragedy.
Such was the spirit of Robert Burns, a man passionate and piteous, compact of light and flame and loveliness, capable of withering scorn of wrong, quickly
shifting from the ludicrous to the horrible in his fancy,
poised between laughter and tears – and if by some
art se could send his soul into all the dark places of
the world, pity and joy would return to the common
ways of man. His feet may have been in the furrow, but
the nobility of manhood was in his heart, on his lips
the voice of eternal melody, and in his face the light of
the morning star. Long live the spirit of Robert Burns,
Poet and Freemason! May it grow and glow to the confounding of all injustice, all unkindness!
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one of the few minds tall enough to touch it. The qualities of Burns are simplicity, naturalness, vividness, fire,
sweet-toned pathos, and rollicking humor – qualities
rare enough, and still more rarely blended. His fame
rests upon verses written swiftly, as men write letters,
and upon songs as spontaneous, as artless, as lovely
as the songs of birds. He sang of simple things, of the
joys and woes and pieties of the common life, where
sin be shadows virtue and the cup of death is pressed
to the lips of love. He saw the world as God made it,
woven of good and ill, of light and shadow, and his
songs come home to rich and poor alike, a comfort
and a consecration.
No wonder Burns was the best beloved poet of Lincoln, as much for his democracy as for his humor, his
pathos, and his rich humanity. With him social rank
was but a guinea stamp, a bit of tawdry tinsel alongside
the native nobility of manhood. He honored a man for
his worth, not for his wealth. For the snob, for the fop,
he had genuine contempt. If he flayed the selfish pride
of the rich, it was not from envy – just as truly did he
scorn the poor man who, instead of standing erect, only
cringes and whines. He told the poor man that it is no
sin to be poor, but that it is a sin to be ashamed of it.
He taught that honest poverty is not only nobler, but
happier, than indolent or ill-gotten wealth. The Cotter’s
dog and the Laird’s dog are very real dogs, as all admit,
but their talk is something more than dog-philosophy.
It is the old, old story of the high and the low, and it is
like Burns to take the part of the under dog. Still, had
the Cotter’s dog given way to self-pity, Burns would
have been the first to kick him. He hated fawning, as he
hated sham, and he knew that if toil is tragedy, labor is
an honor and joy.
That which lives in Robert Burns, and will live while
human nature is the same, is his love of justice, of honesty, of reality, his touch of pathos and melting sympathy, his demand for liberty, his faith in man and God –
all uttered with simple speech and the golden voice of
song. His poems were little jets of love and liberty and
pity finding their way out through the fissures in the
granite-like theology of his day. They came fresh from
the heart of a man whom the death of a little bird set
dreaming of the meaning of the world wherein life is
He haunts his native land
As an immortal youth; his hand
Guides every plow.
His presence haunts this room tonight,
A form of mingled mist and light
From that far coast.
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T H E FA R E W E L L
Adieu! a heart-warm, fond adieu!
Dear Brothers of the Mystic Tie!
Ye favoured, ye enlighten’d few,
Companions of my social joy!
Tho’ I to foreign lands must hie,
Pursuing Fortune’s slidd’ry ba’,
With melting heart, and brimful eye,
I’ll mind you still, tho’ far awa’.
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To The Brethren Of St. James Lodge, Tarbolton*
May Freedom, Harmony, and Love,
Unite you in the Grand Design,
Beneath th’ Omniscient Eye above –
The glorious Architect Divine –
That you may keep th’ Unerring Line,
Still rising by the Plummet’s Law,
Till ORDER bright completely shine,
Shall be my pray’r when far awa’.
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Oft have I met your social band
And spent the cheerful, festive night;
Oft honoured with supreme command,
Presided o’er the Sons of Light;
And by that Hieroglyphic Bright,
Which none but Craftsmen ever saw!
Strong Mem’ry on my heart shall write
Those happy scenes, when far awa’.
And you, FAREWELL! whose merits claim
Justly the Highest Badge to wear!
Heav’n bless your honour’d, noble NAME,
To Masonry and Scotia dear.
A last request permit me here,
When yearly ye assemble a’,
One round, I ask it with a tear,
To him, the Bard that’s far awa’.
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*Read to the members of St. James Lodge, Tarbolton, at a meeting of the lodge held on June
23, 1786. At this time Burns was preparing to leave Scotland for a voyage to Jamaica.
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Volume 1, Number 7, July 1923
Albert Pike
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lbert Pike found Freemasonry in a log proceeded to educate himself. Had he been admitted
cabin and left it in a Temple. He was the master to Harvard he would have been in the class of Oliver
genius of Masonry in America, both as scholar Wendell Holmes.
As a lad, Albert Pike was sensitive, high-strung, conand artist. No other mind of equal power ever toiled so
long in the service of the Craft in the New World. No scious of power, very shy and easily depressed; but, ambitious and determined to make his place in the world.
other has left a nobler fame in our annals.
A great American and a great Mason, the life of Pike Always a poet, while teaching school at Fairhaven he
is a part of the romance of his country. Outside the wrote a series of poems called “Hymns to the Gods,”
Craft he was known as a poet, journalist, soldier, jurist, which he afterward revised and sent to Christopher
orator, and his ability in so many fields fills one with North, editor of “Blackwood’s Magazine,” at Edinburg,
amazement. Apart from the chief work of his life in Ma- receiving in reply a letter hailing him as a truly great
sonry, he merits honor as a philosopher and a scholar. poet. Had Pike given himself altogether to poetry he
Indeed, he was one of the richest minds of his age, re- would have been one of the greatest of American Poets;
sembling the sages of the ancient world in his appear- but, he seemed not to care for such fame but only for
ance and in the quality of his mind. Those who do not the joy, and sometimes the pain, of writing. Indeed, the
know Masonry often think of him as a man whom his- real story of his inner life may be traced in his poems,
a volume of which was published as early as 1813, in
tory passed by and forgot.
Pike was born in Boston, Massachusetts, December honor of which event his friends gave him a reception.
In a little poem called “Fatasma” he pictures himself
29, 1809, of a family in which are several famous names,
such as Nicholas Pike, author of the first arithmetic in at that time as a pale-faced boy, wasted by much study,
America, and the friend of Washington; and Zebulon reciting his poems to a crowded room. As his lips move
Pike, the explorer, who gave his name to Pike’s Peak. his eyes are fastened on the lovely face and starry eyes
His father, he tells us, was a shoemaker who worked of a girl to whom he dared not tell his love, because she
hard to give his children the benefit of an education; was rich and he was poor. No doubt this hopeless love
his Mother a woman of great beauty, but somewhat had much to do with his leaving New England to seek
stern in her ideas of rearing a boy. As a child he saw his fortune in the West. Anyway, it made him so sore of
the festivities at the close of the War with Great Britain, heart that the word God does not appear in his poetry
in 1815. When Albert Pike was four his father moved to for several years. Another reason for going away was the
Newburyport, and there the boy grew up, attending the rather stern environment of New England, in which he
schools of the town, and also the academy at Framing- felt that he could never do and be his best. So, he sings:
ham. At fourteen he was ready for the freshman class
Weary of fruitless toil he leaves his home,
at Harvard, but was unable to pay the tuition fees for
To seek in other climes a fairer fate.
two years in advance, as was required at that time, and
Volume 1, Number 7, July 1923
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Pike left New England in March 1831, going first to power, they invited him to go to Little Rock as assisNiagara, and thence, walking nearly all the way, to St. tant editor of the Advocate. Here ended the winter of
Louis. In August he joined a party of forty traders with his wanderings, and his brilliant summer began among
friends who love him and inspired him to do his best.
ten covered wagons following the old Santa Fe
Pike made an able editor, studying law at night,
Trail. He was a powerful man, six feet and two inches tall, finely formed, with dark eyes and fair skin, fleet never sleeping more than five hours a day – which enof foot and sure of shot, able to endure hardship, and abled him to do as much work as two men usually do.
greatly admired by the Indians. He spent a year at Santa By 1835 he owned the Advocate, which contained some
Fe, the unhappiest months of his life. Friendless, home- of his best writing. He delved deep into law, mastersick, haunted by many memories, he poured out his ing its history, its philosophy; and, once admitted to
soul in sad-hearted poems in which we see not only the the bar, his path to success was an open road. About
desperate melancholy of the man but the vivid colors this time we read a tender poem, “To Mary,” showing
of the scenery and life round about him. Shelly was his that other thoughts were busy in his mind. That same
ideal, Coleridge his inspiration but his own genius was year he married Miss Mary Hamilton, a beautiful girl
more akin to Bryant than any other of our singers. What whom he met on a June day at the home of a friend.
A few months later appeared this “Prose Sketches and
made him most forlorn is told in such lines as these:
Poems,” followed by a longer poem; bold, spirited, and
scholarly entitled “Ariel.” His friends printed his poems,
Friends washed off by life’s ebbing tide,
for the most part, as he seemed deaf to the whispers of
Like sands upon the shifting coasts,
literary ambition.
The soul’s first love another’s bride;
In the War with Mexico Pike won fame for his valor
And other melancholy though.
in the field of Buena Vista, and he has enshrined that
Happily, new scenes, new friends, and new adven- scene in a thrilling poem. After the war he took up the
tures healed his heart, and a new note of joy is added cause of the Indians, whose life and languages fascito his rare power of describing the picturesque country nated him and who, he felt, were being robbed of their
in which he was a pilgrim. In 1832, with a trapping party, rights. He carried their case to the Supreme Court, to
he went down the Pecos river into the Staked Plains, whose Bar he was admitted in 1849, along with Abraand then to the headwaters of the Brazos and Red Riv- ham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin. His speech in the
ers. It was a perilous journey and he almost died of hun- case of the Senate Award to the Choctaws is famous,
ger and thirst, as he has told us in his poem, “Death in Webster passing high eulogy upon it. Judged by any test,
the Desert.” After walking five hundred miles he arrived Pike was a great orator, uniting learning with practical
at Fort Smith, Arkansas, friendless, without a dollar, acumen, grace with power, and the imperious magneand well-nigh naked. He was soon teaching school in a tism which only genius can command.
Pike was made a Master Mason in Western Star
tiny log cabin near Van Buren, and, tired of wandering,
Lodge No. 1, Little Rock, Arkansas, July 1850; and the
his life began to take root and grow.
Again his pen was busy, writing verses for the “Lit- symbolism of the Craft fascinated him from the first,
tle Rock Advocate,” as well as political articles under the both as a poet and scholar. Everywhere he saw sugpen name “Casca,” which attracted so much notice that gestions, dim intimations, half-revealed and half-conHorace Greely reprinted them in the New York Tribune. cealed ideas which could not have had their origin
Soon the whole state was eager to know the genius who among the common craft Masons of old. He set himsigned himself “Casca.” Robert Crittenden and Judge self to study the Order, his enthusiasm keeping pace
Turner rode through the wilderness and found the tall, with his curiosity, in search of the real origin and meanhandsome young man teaching in a log schoolhouse ing of its symbols. At last he found that Freemasonry
on Little Piney River. Charmed with his modesty and is the Ancient Great Mysteries in disguise, its simple
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to reveal its worth and promise.
The Scottish appeared in America in 1801, at Charleston, South Carolina, derived from a Supreme Council
constituted in Berlin in 1786. For its authority it had, in
manuscript, a Grand Constitution, framed by the Prussian body – a document which Pike afterwards defended so ably, though toward the end of his life he was led
by facts brought out by Gould and others, to modify
his earlier position. The Council so established had no
subordinate bodies at first, and never very many, in fact,
until 1855, a very natural result in a country which, besides having Masonry of its own, regarded the Rite as
heresy. None the less Pike entered the Scottish Rite, at
Charleston, March 20, 1853, receiving its degrees from
the fourth to the thirty-second, and the thirty-third degree in New Orleans, in 1857.
The following year he delivered a lecture in New
Orleans, by special request, before the Grand Lodge
of Louisiana; his theme being “The Evil Consequences of Schisms and Disputes for Power in Masonry, and
of Jealousy and Dissensions Between Masonic Rites” –
one of the greatest single Masonic lectures ever delivered, in which may be found the basis of all his Masonic
thought and teaching. Masonry, as Pike saw it, is morality founded in faith and taught by symbols. It is not a
religion, but a worship in which all good men can unite,
its purpose being to benefit mankind physically, socially, and spiritually; by helping men to cultivate freedom, friendship and character. To that end, beyond the
facts of faith – the reality of God, the moral law, and the
hope of immortality – it does not go.
One is not surprised to learn that Pike was made Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, in 1859. He at once began to recast the
Rite, rewriting its rituals, reshaping its degrees, some
of which existed only in skeleton, and clothing them in
robes of beauty. To this task he brought all his learning
as a scholar, his insight as a poet, and his enthusiasm
as a Mason. He lived in Little Rock, in a stately home
overlooking the city, where he kept his vast library and
did his work. In the same year, 1859, he was reported
dead by mistake, and had the opportunity of reading
many eulogies written in his memory. When the mistake was known, his friends celebrated his “return from
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emblems the repository of the highest wisdom of the
Ancient World, to rescue and expound which became
more and more his desire and passion. Here his words:
It began to shape itself to my intellectual vision into something imposing and majestic, solemnly mysterious and grand. It seemed to me
like the Pyramids in the grandeur and loneliness, in whose yet undiscovered chambers may
be hidden, for the enlightenment of the coming
generations, the sacred books of the Egyptians,
so long lost to the World; like the Sphinx, halfburied in the sands. In essence, Freemasonry is
more ancient than any of the world’s living religions. So I came at last to see that its symbolism is its soul.
Thus a great poet saw Freemasonry and sought to
renew the luster of its symbols of high and gentle wisdom, making it a great humanizing, educational, and
spiritual force among men. He saw in it a faith deeper
than all creeds, larger than all sects, which, if rediscovered, he believed, would enlighten the world. It was a
worthy ambition for any man, and one which Pike, by
the very quality of his genius, as well as his tastes, temper and habits of mind, seemed born to fulfill. All this
beauty, be it noted, Pike found in the old Blue Lodge
– he had not yet advanced to the higher degrees – and
to the end of his life the Blue Lodge remained to him a
wonder and a joy. There he found universal Masonry, all
the higher grades being so many variations on its theme.
He did not want Masonry to be a mere social club, but a
power for the shaping of character and society.
So far Pike had not even heard of the Scottish Rite,
to which he was to give so many years of service. He
seems not to have heard of it until 1852, and then, as
he tells us, with much the same feeling with which a
Puritan might hear of a Buddhist ceremony performed
in a Calvinistic church. He imagined that it was not
Masonry at all, or else a kind of Masonic atheism. His
misunderstanding was due, perhaps, to the bitter rivalry of rites which then prevailed, and which he did so
much to heal. At length he saw that Masonry was one,
though its rites are many, and he studied the Scottish
Rite, its origin, history, and such ritual as it had at the
time, which was rather crude and chaotic, but sufficient
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Life has its ills, but it is not all evil. If life is
Hades,” as it was called, by a festival.
worthless,
so is immortality.
Alas, then came the measureless woe of Civil War,
Our business is not to be better than others,
and Pike cast his lot with the South, and was placed in
but to be better than ourselves.
command of the Indian Territory. Against his protest
For all his strength and learning, Pike was ever a
the Indian regiments were ordered from the Territory
and took part in the Battle of Elkhorn. The battle was a sensitive, beauty-loving soul, touched by the brevity
disaster, and some atrocities by Indian Troops, whom and sadness of life, which breathe in his poems. His
he was unable to restrain, cause criticism. Later, when best known poem, but by no means his greatest, was
the Union Army attacked Little Rock the Commanding written in 1872 entitled, “Every Year,” in which this note
General, Thomas H. Benton, Grand Master of Masons of melancholy is heard:
in Iowa, posted a guard to protect the home of Pike and
Life is a count of losses,
his Masonic Library. After the War, Pike practiced Law
for a time in Memphis. In 1868 he moved to Alexandria,
Every year;
Virginia, and in 1870 to Washington.
For the weak are heavier crosses,
Again he took up his labors in behalf of Masonry, re Every year;
vising its rituals, and writing those nobel lectures into
Lost springs with sobs replying,
which he gathered the wisdom of the ages – as though
Unto weary Autumn’s sighing,
his mind were a great dome which caught the echoes
While those we love are dying,
of a thousand thinkers. By 1871 the Scottish Rite was
Every year.
influential and widely diffused, due, in part, to the energy and genius of its Commander. In the same year he
To the past go more dead faces,
published Morals and Dogma, a huge manual for the in Every year;
struction of the Rite, as much a compilation as a comAs the loved leave vacant places,
position, able but ill-arranged, which remains to this
Every year;
day a monument of learning. It ought to be revised, reEverywhere the sad eyes meet us,
arranged, and reedited, since it is too valuable to be left
In the evening’s dusk they greet us,
in so cumbersome a form, containing as it does much
And to come to them entreat us,
of the best Masonic thinking and writing in our litera Every year.
ture. It is studded with flashing insights and memorable
sayings, as for example:
But the truer life draws nigher,
Man is accountable for the uprightness of his
Every year;
doctrine, but not for the rightness of it.
And the morning star climbs higher,
The free country where intellect and genius
Every year;
rule, will endure. Where they serve, and other
Earth’s hold on us grows slighter,
influences govern, its life is short.
And the heavy burden lighter,
When the state begins to feed part of the peoAnd the Dawn Immortal brighter,
ple, it prepares all to be slaves.
Every year.
Deeds are greater than words. They have a life,
mute but undeniable, and they grow. They peoDeath often pressed the cup of sorrow to his lips.
ple the emptiness of Time.
Three of his children died in infancy. His first son was
Nothing is really small. Every bird that flies
drowned; his second, an officer, was killed in battle.
carries a thread of the infinite in its claws.
His eldest daughter died in 1869, and the death of his
Sorrow is the dog of that unknown Shepherd
wife was the theme of a melting poem, “The Widowed
who guides the flock of men.
Heart.” His tributes to his friends in the Fraternity, as
The Short Talk Bulletin
Albert Pike33
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one by one they passed away, were memorable for their kindly, lovable. So death found him in April 1891, fulfilltenderness and simple faith. Nothing could shake his ing his own lines written as a boy:
childlike trust in the veiled kindness of the Father of
Men; and despite many clouds, “Hope still with purple
So I, who sing, shall die,
flushed his sky.”
Worn thin and pale, by care and sorrow;
In his lonely later years, Pike betook himself more
And fainting with a soft unconscious sigh,
and more to his studies, building a city of the mind
Bid unto this poor body that I borrow,
for inward consolation and shelter. He mastered many
A long good-by – tomorrow
languages – Sanskrit, Hebrew, old Samarian, Persian –
To enjoy, I hope, eternal spring in high
seeking what each had to tell of beauty and of truth. He
Beyond the sky.
left in the library of the House of the Temple fifteen
large manuscript volumes, translations of the sacred
So passed Pike. No purer, nobler man has stood at
books of the East, all written with an old-fashioned the Altar of Freemasonry or left his story in our tradiquill, in a tiny flowing hand, without blot or erasure. tions. He was the most eminent Mason in the world,
There he held court and received his friends amid the alike for his high rank, his rich culture, and his endurbirds and flowers he loved so well. He was compan- ing service. Nor will our craft ever permit to grow dim
ionable, abounding in friendship, brilliant in conversa- the memory of that stately, wise, and gracious teacher
tion, his long white hair lending him an air of majesty, – a Mason to whom the world was a Temple, a poet to
his face blushing like a child’s at merited praise, simple, whom the world was a song.
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•••
Volume 1, Number 7, July 1923
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Volume 1, Number 8, August 1923
Book Of Constitutions Guarded By The
Tiler’s Sword
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uncanny wisdom or whether he is simply faking.
But let us go out into his little room that is furnished
with a cast-off table and some chairs that were used in
the lodge room before it was remodeled; let us light the
cigar, cigarette or pipe that Masonic custom denies us
in the lodge, tilt our chairs back against the wall, lay our
heads against that greasy spot left by many heads that
have rested there before ours, and listen to this Masonic Philosopher.
“I have often wondered,” says Peter, “about these Masonic Symbols. Generally when you fellows are in there
watching the work I am out here by myself, and so you
see I have lots of time to think. Sometimes I am puzzled by what the Ritual says in its explanation of these
symbols. Take for instance, those nine emblems of
the Third Degree. I suppose most of you fellows have
forgotten all about them because you generally come
streaming out here and throw your aprons in a pile for
me to straighten out about the time the Master starts on
his lecture. The only time you stay is when the Master
tells you there is going to be coffee and sandwiches after
the work, and then you hang around during the lecture.
“There is one of those emblems that has given me
more trouble than anything else in Masonry; it is the
one in which you see a book lying on a velvet pillow
with a sword over the top. The Masters tells you that it is
the Book of Constitutions Guarded by the Tiler’s Sword,
and that it reminds us to be ever watchful and guarded
in our thoughts, words, and actions, particularly when
before the enemies of Masonry, ever bearing in mind
those truly Masonic virtues, silence and circumspection.
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et me introduce the speaker of the evening, although, as presiding officers so often say,
he hardly needs an introduction. I believe that
most Masons know him well and, after I describe him,
you will easily recognize him. He is the Tiler of his
Lodge and a very interesting man to meet. You will find
it worthwhile cultivating his acquaintance.
I have met him wherever I have been privileged to
visit lodge. He is a man of uncertain age. He is old in
wisdom, in his knowledge of Masonic Lore, and in his
understanding of human nature. He is young with that
spirit of eternal youth that comes with fulfillment of the
sweet law of Brotherhood. He knows all the Brethren
intimately and never misses a meeting of his lodge. He
has seen young men hesitatingly enter the preparation
room for the first time; he has seen them passed and
raised, watched their enthusiastic progress through the
stations, served under them as they sat in the Oriental
Chair, and walker with drawn sword at the head of the
procession as they were carried to their last resting place.
His name is legion but I prefer to call him Peters, because everybody calls him by his first name; and if your
think tank is working tonight, you will recognize the
appropriateness of calling him Peter.
He does not get into the lodge room very often
and would be particularly embarrassed if called upon
to make a speech. I have seen him come into the room
on large meeting nights to help the deacons purge the
lodge. He will cast his eyes carelessly over the crowd
and then confidently couch for every man in the room.
I have sometimes wondered whether he possesses
The Short Talk Bulletin
Book Of Constitutions Guarded By The Tiler’s Sword35
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Volume 1, Number 8, August 1923
Provincial Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts.
He told us of the Boston Tea Party, and how the little
affair was arranged at the Old Green Dragon Tavern,
which was nothing more or less than a Masonic Temple. He told us about John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Warren, Lafayette, and George Washington;
and ever so many more of those early patriots who were
all Masons, and how it was by working together as Masons that they carried out on the Revolutionary War,
and then afterwards built this nation of ours, he told us
about the constitution of the United States. You know
the interesting thing about that is not that these men
were Masons, many of our prominent citizens today
are Masons, but that the same group of men who were
leaders of our Fraternity were also leaders of the nation at that time. And then he told us how, because our
Brethren had laid the foundation of this nation and because that foundation was in accord with Masonic principles, it was our duty to build the rest of the Temple to
Liberty in America, and to watch over it and guard it
with our very lives.
“So I got the thinking about that old Book and sword
and it seemed to me that perhaps after all there was a
real meaning behind it that was concealed rather than
revealed in the Ritual, as that Masonic writer that I told
you about said; and it seemed to me that Book of Constitutions, instead of being a symbol of silence and circumspection, was a symbol of constitutional government such as we have in this country. Our Book of
Constitutions, you know, is our Masonic fundamental
law, just as the Constitution of the United States is the
fundamental law of our nation. So you see how naturally it becomes the symbol of constitutional government.
“That Sword over the Book is this little old sword
lying here on the table beside me. You know, this sword
isn’t any good to hurt anybody with, but it is just a symbol by which Freemasonry protects itself against cowans and eavesdroppers. So it is just a symbol of Masonry on guard and, as the Book of Constitutions is a
symbol of constitutional government, the Tiler’s Sword
is a symbol of Masonry on guard. Do you see what I’m
getting at? I believe the Book of Constitutions Guarded by the Tiler’s Sword teaches us that Masonry should
always be the Guardian of Constitutional Government.
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Now, that never seemed just right to me.
“Those old boys who gave us this Ritual had pretty
good ideas about symbolism, and the things they used
as symbols generally meant just exactly what they told
you about them. It is funny how much meaning they
could get out of such things as a trowel, a square or a
level. True symbolism, you know, isn’t forced. It just
comes naturally. The moment you hear the explanation,
you say, ‘Of Course! Why didn’t I think of that before?’
That is why I could never see what there was about that
book and sword to teach us to be watchful and guarded
in our thoughts, words and actions.
“You know the Chinese with their three monkeys,
one with his hands over his ears, the other with his
hands over his eyes, and the third with his hands over
his mouth made a much better symbol of being watchful and guarded than our book and sword, and the same
thing holds true in regard to silence and circumspection. If that is what we want to teach, we had better get
rid of that book and sword and throw a picture of the
three wise monkeys on the screen.
“Some time ago I read a book written by a great man
who had spent his life studying Masonry. One thing
that makes me want to study Masonry is that so many
great men have found it worthy of such deep study. This
writer seemed to have the idea that Masonry didn’t always say just exactly what it meant. He said something
about the real truth of Masonry being hidden in the
Ritual instead of being revealed by it; that you had to
search out the real meaning of the Masonic Symbols for
yourself. That always stuck by me. I was talking to one
of the brethren about it and he agreed with this Masonic writer. This brother said we don’t sell the secrets of
Freemasonry; when a man pays for his degrees, we only
sell him the tools and he must use them to dig out the
secrets for himself. And so I dug away at the old book
and sword trying to understand what it really meant
until the other night when one of these Service Association fellows came around and talked to us.
“He showed us how much the Masons had to do
with the founding of this government. He told us how
Paul Revere’s ride was organized among Masons and
how all the fellows that helped Paul Revere make that
ride were his Brethren, while Paul Revere himself was
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would seem properly to symbolize regard for and obedience to law, a prominent Masonic duty.’
“So, until somebody shows me that I am wrong, I am
going to believe every time I see that book and sword
on the screen that the book is the Constitution of the
United States and the sword is Freemasonry on guard;
and instead of teaching me to be watchful and guarded in all my thoughts, words and actions; it is going
to teach me to be ever watchful and guarded against
the enemies of my nation and its Constitution, so that
when I getup into the Grand Lodge above those old
boys up there that built this nation are going to meet
me with the Lion’s Paw, and vouch for me when the Supreme Grand Master of the Universe takes the Pass.”
That is Peter’s story of the Book of Constitutions
Guarded by the Tiler’s Sword. You may take it or leave
it, but somehow or other I think he is right. At least,
ever since I heard tell that story I have had a new thrill
while listening to the Master explaining the nine Masonic Emblems in the Third Degree; and I say to myself, “Well, that is all right for the candidate. We can’t
give him all the light at once, because he would simply be blinded by its brilliance. But, for myself, I have
been out in the anteroom with Peters using our working tools in a search for further Masonic light, and I
know that sword and book mean that it is up to me to
fight the enemies of constitutional government and to
protect our Constitution from those seeking to destroy
it. And with the help of the Great Architect of the Universe, and my nearly three million Brethren, I am going
to do that little job!”
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“I was telling another Brother about this the other
night and he told me I was wrong because Masonry was
older than the United States government and the symbol, he said, must be older than this country of ours. So
I got to thinking about that too and it came to me that
much of this speculative Masonry that we have today
comes to us from England. Of course, I understand that
Masonry as we know it has been gathered together from
many countries. Some fellows say that we get it direct
from the boys that worked on King Solomon’s Temple
but it may be that isn’t quite right. Speculative Masonry,
in its present form at least, did have its origin in England, and you know that a lot of the ideas about constitutional government that were accepted by us were
first brought into practice back in England before the
United States became a free country. And so I thought
it very likely that even back then in those days our English brethren, just like our Revolutionary brethren were
fighting for constitutional government and maybe they
had as much to do with getting it in England as George
Washington, Paul Revere, and the other boys had with
getting it in this country.
“But I’m inclined to agree with Brother Mackey, who
believed that our monitorial definition of this emblem
is a modern one, and was introduced by Brother Webb.
It does not appear in the first edition of Webb’s Monitor, but I found it in the second edition, printed in 1802.
Mackey says, ‘This interpretation of Webb is a very unsatisfactory one. The Book of Constitutions is the Symbol of constituted law rather than of silence and circumspection, and when guarded by the Tiler’s Sword it
The Short Talk Bulletin
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Volume 1, Number 9, September 1923
Warren Harding – Freemason
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Nation is not simply a human encampment, or a business concern. It is both of these,
but much more. It is the fusing of millions of
people into a vast fraternity, a great friendship, into a
unity of faith, feeling, purpose and destiny. It is a collective memory and a collective hope; a thing of spirit,
ideals, sentiment – a fellowship in history, service and
that obligation to the future which is one of the noblest
sentiments of mankind, and the most disinterested.
Of the faith, history, genius and destiny of the Republic, the President is the embodiment. He is a symbolic figure. When he is running for office he is only a
man like the rest of us, chosen from among ourselves by
virtue of his strength of intellect and nobility of character, as these have developed before the eyes of his fellow citizens. When he is elected he is something more.
He becomes then the incarnation of the spirit and will
and purpose of a great people, and we need not apologize to any sentiment of equality for regarding him with
reverence. There is, in one way of looking at him, something sacred about the President, as the instrument of
the execution of the organized will of the nation.
This is not a mere fancy, but a fact of deep import
which we need to ponder. The investiture of the President with the power and purpose of millions of people
makes him other than he is in his private capacity. What
the President does before the world he does for and
through us, typifying the nation as no mere ruler could
typify it. He is a servant of the people, not a master. His
character as revealed in his stewardship is our character, his work in no real sense our work, doing things
which free people decree shall be done. He stands for
the only Divine right that Republics know – the right
Volume 1, Number 9, September 1923
of men to rule themselves. The accolade of the popular
will changes him and makes him a High Priest of humanity in this land, where, are being wrought out the
highest ideals of the race.
The President is the nation brought to a focus of personality, and we see him walking in a fiercer light than
ever beat upon a throne – from humble life to the highest office a mortal may hold while wearing our morality. We have had many great Presidents, never a bad one.
No one on that great roster has betrayed his people, or
proved unworthy of his mighty trust. Each is known
to have been moved by pure motives – doing with an
honest purpose all he could for the glory of the Republic. Read the life of each President, and, in the light of
all the facts and the posture of the hour, it will be seen
that a better choice could not have been made than was
made at the time.
In a manner not merely accidental, but providential, each of our Presidents, by virtue of his temperament, training, character and personality, has been the
man to match the hour – for, to a degree not realized,
the personality of the President gives and receives the
tone and temper of the nation. The names and services
of our Presidents are a testimony to all the world that
the plain common people can be trusted, while showing what kind of men a democracy can discover and develop. Most of the great Presidents revealed their greatness after the wise ones wondered why they had been
elected. What was then the future and now the past has
vindicated the intuition of the nation, in an almost miraculous manner.
Into this great tradition of honor and service
came President Harding, at a time of disillusion and
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confusion, in the wake of a gigantic War, when the and that was no affectation, but the literal truth of the
world was feverish and almost fanatical with shell- man. “I think I know the very soul of Masonry,” he said
shock; a quiet, gentle-hearted man of fraternal instincts in his address to the Imperial Council of the Shrine;
and humanitarian sentiments, having wisdom of pa- and he rejoiced in the great place which fraternalism in
tience and the patience of love; conservative, concilia- general, and Masonry in particular, has in America. He
tory, seeking to plant seeds in the good soil of under- saw its value, both as a bulwark against anti-social forcstanding; friendly of spirit, faithful of heart; a man of es, and as a constructive force in behalf of social stabilhaunting sympathy and healing goodwill; a small-town ity and advance. His estimate of Masonry was shown
man, who loved all kind of folk, at once our neighbor by the place he held in its fellowship, and the part he
and our President; honored for his character, beloved took in the assemblies, his Masonic affiliations being as
for his simple, unveneered humanity, and to be remem- follows:
bered as a man in whom the spirit of our Republic reMarion Lodge No. 70, F. & A.M., Marion, Ohio;
vealed itself as a great Friendship.
Marion Chapter No. 62, R.A.M., Marion, Ohio; Marion
Alas, just as he was striking his stride as a servant Commandery No. 36, K.T., Marion, Ohio; Scioto Conand leader of the people, God touched him and he fell sistory, A.A.S.R., Columbus, Ohio; Aladdin Temple,
asleep – plunging the nation and the world into a be- A.A.O.N.M.S., Columbus, Ohio. Honorary Member Alreavement as unexpected as it was profound. Each of bert Pike Lodge No. 33, A.F. & A.M., Washington, D.C.;
us, whether we agree with the politics of the President Columbia Chapter No. 1, R.A.M., Washington, D.C.,
or not, felt a sense of personal loss, as if a near neigh- and Almas Temple, A.A.O.N.M.S., Washington, D.C.
bor and old friend had suddenly passed away – leaving
The President was elected to receive the Thirtyus to wonder at the fleetingness of life and the strange Third Degree of the Scottish Rite in 1920, but owing to
ways of God. He brought the people close to the Gov- the illness of Mrs. Harding, was unable to be present
ernment, and the Government close to the people; he at the conferring of the Degree at Cleveland. It was his
wanted to foster fellowship, understanding, brother- intention to attend the session of the Supreme Counhood, cooperation between classes, creeds, nations, cil, Northern Jurisdiction, in New York in the autumn,
aces. In short, he was a man and a President to whom to receive the Degree; but in the hearts of his Brethren
Fraternity was the fundamental need, faith and hope of he had already been crowned with the highest Degree
the nation and the world, without which chaos comes within the gift of the Fraternity, as much for his spirit
again; and in this he was a true Master Mason.
and character as for his devotion to the Craft. At the
To the judgment of statesmen and the verdict of his- time of his raising, and on various Masonic occasions,
torians we must leave the final appraisal of the public acts he left many expressions of his vision of Masonry, one
of the President. Leaving these large matters for some of which, in his address to the Shrine, is as follows:
ultimate estimate yet to be made, it is with the more inNo man ever took the oaths and subscribed
tangible influences of character and personality that we
to the obligations with greater watchfulness and
have to do now; those things which seem imponderable,
care than I exercised in receiving the various
but which are more precious that any official act. Such
rites of Masonry; and I say it with due deliberinfluences are spiritual, mystical, incalculable, but they
ation and without fear of breaking faith. I have
are beyond all price and make it worth our time to live.
never encountered a lesson, never witnessed
As has been said, the President was a great frateran example, never heard an obligation uttered
nalist, alike by temperament and by the habit of his
which could not be openly proclaimed to the
life. Brotherliness was native to his spirit, and he was
world. More, if the lessons taught were heeded,
a Mason in his heart, as all men should be, long before
if the obligations read were assumed, if the relahe was made a Mason, in the Lodge. “I like the atmotionships urged were adopted men would be insphere of Fraternity,” he said in one of his last speeches;
finitely better in their relationships.
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Volume 1, Number 9, September 1923
thinking. And so I have come to the new assurance and new confidence in the knowledge that
the manhood of America which bears the stamp
of Masonry is back of me.
I thought while the Eminent Commander
was speaking of the Flag, that he need not worry
about the Flag. All America is consecrated to the
Flag, and I promise you, though I may fail you in
many ways, God knows I will not fail you in that
one thing. While I love peace no less than any
man on earth – While I think peace is the greatest thing to be thought of – I should have no hesitancy to draw this sword in the preservation of
our national honor.
Have you ever stopped to think that tradition seldom preserves anything not worthwhile?
Oh, how beautiful is the story of Christ, and how
you can bring it home to every man! Every man
has his Gethsemane. Every man has his cross to
bear, and the measure of his manhood is the way
he bears it. Men are crucified every day, as was
Christ; and, while they do not rise again, perhaps,
in the same great way, any man who performs his
service to Christ never fails to live again.
Knighthood is no more forgotten today than
when it flourished in its outward manifestation.
I believe the world is everlastingly growing better. The Order of the Temple made a great impression upon me. One of the twelve chosen
apostles privileged to be with the Master daily,
failed, and today we do not expect one man in
twelve, or indeed, one in many more than twelve
to fail. We are going on to a finer and better order
in the world. The World War isn’t chargeable to
the Christian Religion, but to the failure of those
who profess it. Too often we take an obligation
carelessly. Too often we do not give it the consideration which we should.
I am mindful tonight that three days hence I
am to take an oath – a solemn one, one that no
man can approach without solemn thought. I
mean to take that obligation to defend and preserve in humility and faith; and in love of truth.
I want your help. I want you to realize that the
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There is an honest, righteous and just fraternal life in America. It embraces millions of men
and women, and a hundred fraternal organizations extend their influence into more than a
third of our American homes, and make ours a
better Republic for their influences. Fraternity
is inherent in man. It is our obligation to make
the most of it for human betterment . . . In the
Lodge room there is molded what becomes public opinion, and contributes to the moving forces
of developing civilization.
I wish somehow we could have fraternity
among nations, as it is taught in America among
men. I do not mean to employ sign, grip and
password; which afford an appealing mystery
to our relationship, but the insistent demand
for just dealing, the respect for the rights of others, and the ideals of brotherhood recited in the
Golden Rule, and the righteous fellow-relationship which every man knows his God approves.
Under such a reign of fraternity cruel human
warfare will never come again.
Naturally, the President had a special affinity for the
stately Order of the Knights Templar, in which two of
the most beautiful things in the world are united – Freemasonry and Christianity. He was a Christian, holding
his faith with the simplicity of a little child – wherein
he was wiser than any philosophers – striving to live
by its high principles, in private life and public office;
and he died in its great assurance of the life immortal.
Three days prior to his inauguration, at Marion, Ohio,
the Order of the Temple was conferred upon him. After
the conclusion of the ceremonies he addressed the assembled Templars as follows:
Sir Knights:
It seems for a moment as though Masonry must have been designed for my helpfulness
at this particular time. If I have had a thought
that I believed was my own, in all sincerity of a
man’s soul I believe that I have had the thought
approaching my great responsibility in humility
and faith; and I come tonight to the Temple of
this splendid Knighthood and find it teaching
me and emphasizing those things I have been
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from which flows peace, always. ‘A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.’ Surely this is ‘all the Law and the Gospel.’ . . . With the universal observance of Christ’s
commandment we would have the essentials
of all religions. Perhaps I will best express my
thought if I say we need less of sectarianism, less
of denominationalism, less of fanatical zeal and
its exactions, and more of the Christ spirit, more
of the Christ practice, and a new and abiding
consecration to reverence for God.
Thus passed President Harding, Friend and Brother;
on his lips words of love to man and faith to God, leaving a legacy of honorable character and gracious service. All the Craft unite in the words, “Hail and Farewell, until we meet in the Great White Lodge,” the
while we wonder in our hearts what it must be like to
be past death – to have accomplished that one amazing act which we have yet undone before us, and which
awaits our adventure – to know what that awful and
mysterious thing is, and that its pains and terrors are
gone past forever. For, whether we be Presidents or
peasants, walking in high or humble lot, these things
will pass away like a dream of the night, leaving only the
Eternal God and the immortal soul, and the loves and
fellowships of these many days and years!
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next administration of the greatest land on earth
is yours, not mine; it’s that of one hundred million, and I want the help of all of them.
His last address, read by his secretary almost at the
hour when he passed away, was in presentation of a
traveling banner, of which he was the honored bearer, from the Grand Commandery, Knights Templar
of Ohio, to the Grand Commandery of California, at
Hollywood, on the afternoon of August 2nd. The banner was inscribed with the text, “Not unto us, O Lord,
Not unto us; but unto Thy Name be the glory;” and
the President said:
We should glorify the Holy Name, not by
words, not by praise, not by display of arms, but
by deeds of service in behalf of human brotherhood. Christ, the great Exemplar of our Order,
repeatedly urged this truth upon his hearers.
There was nothing mystical or mythical in the
code of living preached by Jesus Christ. The lessons He taught were so simple and plain, so fashioned to be understood by the humblest of men,
that they appealed to the reason and emotions
of all. His words to the fishermen bore conviction to the learned men of the Roman bench. All
his teachings were based upon the broad ground
of fraternalism, and justice, and understanding
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Volume 1, Number10, October 1923
Master’s Piece
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n the olden time it was no easy matter for a
man to become a Freemason. He had to win the
right by hard work, technical skill, and personal
worth. Then, as now, he had to prove himself a freeman,
of lawful age, legitimate birth, of sound body and good
repute to even be eligible at all. Also, he had to bind
himself to serve under rigid rules for seven years, his
service being at once a test of his character and a training for his work. If he proved incompetent or unworthy,
he was sent away.
In all operative lodges of the Middle Ages, as in the
guilds of skilled artisans of the same period, young men
entered as Apprentices, vowing absolute obedience, for
the lodge was a school of the seven sciences, as well as
of the art of building. At first the Apprentice was little more than a servant, doing the most menial work,
and if he proved himself trustworthy and proficient his
wages were increased; but, the rules were never relaxed,
“except at Christmastime,” as the Old Charges tell us,
when there was a period of freedom duly celebrated
with feast and frolic.
The rules, by which an Apprentice pledged himself
to live, as we find them recorded in the Old Charges,
were very strict. He had first to confess his faith in God,
vowing to honor the Church, the State, and the Master
under whom he served; agreeing not to absent himself
from the service of the Order save with the license of
the Master. He must be honest and upright, faithful in
keeping the secrets of the Craft and the Confidence of
his fellows. He must not only be chaste, but must not
marry or contract himself to any women during the
term of his Apprenticeship. He must be obedient to the
Master without argument or murmuring, respectful to
Volume 1, Number10, October 1923
all Freemasons, avoiding uncivil speech, free from slander and dispute. He must not frequent any tavern or
alehouse, except it be upon an errand of the Master, or
with his consent.
Such was the severe rule under which an Apprentice learned the art and secrets of the Craft. After seven
years of study and discipline, either in the lodge or
at the Annual Assembly (where awards were usually made), he presented his “Masterpiece,” some bit of
stone or metal carefully carved, for the inspection of
the Master, saying, “Behold my experience!” By which
he meant the sum of his experiments. He had spoiled
many a bit of stone. He had spent laborious nights and
days, and the whole was in that tiny bit of work. The
Masters assembled carefully examined his Masterpiece
and if it was approved he was made a Master Mason,
entitled to take his kit of tools and go out as a workman,
a Master and Fellow of his Craft. Not, however, until he
had selected a Mark by which his work could be identified, and renewed his vows to the Order in which he
was now a Fellow.
The old order was first Apprentice, then Master,
then Fellow – Mastership being, in the early time, not
a degree conferred, but a reward of skill as a workman
and of merit as a man. The reversal of the order today
is due, no doubt, to the custom of the German Guilds,
where a Fellowcraft was required to serve two additional years as a journeyman before becoming a Master. No such custom was known in England. Indeed, the
reverse was true, and it was the Apprentice who prepared his Masterpiece, and if it was accepted, he became a Master. Having won his mastership, he was entitled to become a Fellow – that is, a peer and Fellow
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Anderson and others at the time of the revival of Masonry, in 1717, are clearly wrong. Such a degree could
have never been imposed upon the Craft, unless it harmonized with some previous ceremony, or, at least,
with ideas, traditions and legends familiar and common to the members of the Craft. That such ideas and
traditions did exist in the Craft we have ample evidence.
Long before 1717 we hear hints increase as the office of
Master of the Work lost its practical aspect after the Cathedral-Building period. What was the Master’s part?
Unfortunately we cannot discuss it in print; but nothing is plainer than, that we do not have to go outside
of Masonry itself to find the materials out of which all
three degrees, as they now exist, were developed.
Masonry was not invented; it grew. Today it unfolds
its wise and good and beautiful truth in three noble
and impressive degrees, and no man can take them to
heart and not be ennobled and enriched by their dignity and beauty. The First lays emphasis upon that fundamental righteousness without which a man is not a
man, but a medley of warring passions – that purification of heart which is the basis alike of life and religion.
The Second lays stress upon the culture of the mind,
the training of its faculties in the quest of knowledge,
without which man remains a child. The Third seeks to
initiate us, symbolically, into the eternal life, making us
victors over death before it arrives. The First is the Degree of Youth, the Second the Degree of Manhood, the
Third the consolation and conquest of Old Age, when
evening shadows fall and the Eternal World and its unknown adventure draw near.
What then, for each of us today, is meant by the Master’s Piece? Is it simply a quaint custom handed down
from our ancient brethren, in which we learn how an
Apprentice was made a Master of his Craft? It is that indeed, but much more. Unless we have eyes to see double
meaning everywhere in Masonry, a moral application
and a spiritual suggestion, we see little or nothing. But
if we have eyes to see it is always a parable, an allegory, a
symbol, and the Master’s Piece of olden time becomes
an emblem of that upon which every man is working
all the time and everywhere, whether he is aware of it
or not – his character, his personality, by which he will
be tested and tried at last. Character, as the word means,
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of the Craft which hitherto he had only served. Hence,
all through the Old Charges, the order is “Masters and
Fellows,” but there are signs to show that a distinction
was made according to ability and skill.
For example, in the Matthew Cooke Manuscript we
read that it had been “ordained that they who were passing of cunning should be passing honored,” and those
less skilled were commanded to call the more skilled
“Masters.” Then it is added, “They that were less of wit
should not be called servant nor subject, but Fellow, for
nobility of their gentle blood.” After this manner our
ancient brethren faced the fact of human inequality of
ability and initiative. Those who were of greater skill
held a higher position and were called Masters, while
the masses of the Craft were called Fellows. A further
distinction must be made between “Master” and a
“Master of the Work,” now represented by the Master
of the lodge. Between a Master and the Master of the
Work there was no difference, of course, except an accidental one; they were both Masters and Fellows. Any
Master could become a Master of the Work provided
he was of sufficient skill and had the fortune to be chosen as such either by the employer or the lodge, or both.
What a rite or ritual, if any, accompanied the making
of a Master in the old operative lodges is still a mater of
discussion. In an age devoted to ceremonial it is hard
to imagine such an important event without its appropriate ceremony, but the details are obscure. But this
is plain enough; all the materials out of which the degrees were later developed existed, if not in drama, at
least in legend. Elaborate drama would not be necessary in an operative lodge. Even today, much of what is
acted out in an American Lodge, is merely recited in an
English Lodge. Students seem pretty well agreed that
from a very early time there were two ceremonies, or
degrees, although, no doubt, in a much less elaborate
form than now practiced. As the Order, after the close
of the Cathedral-Building period passed into its speculative character, there would naturally be many changes and much that was routine in an operative lodge became ritual in a speculative lodge.
This is not the time to discuss the origin and development of the Third Degree, except to say that those
who imagine that it was an invention fabricated by
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is something carved, something wrought out of the raw another, and none may learn alone. If evil men can drag
stuff and hard material of life. All we do, all we think, us down, good men can lift us up. No one of us is strong
goes into the making of it. Every passion, every aspira- enough not to need the companionship of good men
tion has to do with it. If we are selfish, it is ugly. If we and the consecration of great ideals. Here lies, perhaps,
are hateful, it is hideous. Williams James went so far as the deepest meaning and value of Masonry; it is fellowto say that just as the stubs remain in the checkbook ship of men seeking goodness, and to yield ourselves
to register the transaction when the check is removed, to its influence, to be drawn into its spirit and quest, is
so every mental act, every deed becomes a part of our to be made better than ourselves. Amid such influence
being and character. Such a fact makes a man ponder each of us is making his Master’s Piece. God is all the
and consider what he is making out of his life, and what time refining, polishing, strokes now tender, now terit will look like at the end. Like the Masons of old, ap- rible. That is the meaning of pain, sorrow and death. It
prenticed in the school of life, we work for “a penny a is the chisel of the Master cutting the rough stone. How
day.” We never receive a large sum all at once, but the hard the mallet strikes, but the stone becomes a pillittle reward of daily duties. The scholar, the man of sci- lar, an arch, perhaps an altar emblem. “Him that overence attains truth, not in a day, but slowly, little by little, cometh, I will make a pillar in the Temple of my God.”
fact by fact. In the same way, day-by-day, act-by-act, we The masterpiece of life, at once the best service to man
make our character by which we shall stand judged be- and the fairest offering to God, is a pure, faithful, heroic,
fore the Master of all Good Work. Often enough men beautiful Character.
make such a bad botch of it that they have to begin all
Oh! the Cedars of Lebanon grow at our door,
over again. The greatest truth taught in religion is the
forgiveness of God, which erases the past and gives us
And the quarry is sunk at our gate;
another chance. All of us have spoiled enough materiAnd the ships out of Ophir, with Golden ore,
al, dulled enough tools and made enough mistakes to
For our summoning mandate wait;
teach us that life without charity is cruel and bitter.
And the word of a Master Mason
Goethe, a great Mason, said that talent may develop
May the house of our soul create!
in solitude, but character is created in society. It is the
fruit of fellowship. Genius may shine aloof and alone,
While the day hath light let the light be used,
like a star, but goodness is social, and it takes two men
For no man shall the night control!
and God to make a brother. In the Holy Book which
Or ever the silver cord be loosed,
lies open on our Altar we read: “No man liveth unto
Or broken the golden bowl,
himself; no man dieth unto himself.” We are tied toMay we build King Solomon’s Temple
gether, seeking that truth which none may learn for
In the true Masonic Soul!
Volume 1, Number10, October 1923
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Volume 1, Number 11, November 1923
The Rite of Destitution
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othing in Freemasonry is more beauti- physical into a human and moral order. The cable tow,
ful in form or more eloquent in meaning than by which we may be detained or removed should we
the First Degree. Its simplicity and dignity, its be unworthy or unwilling to advance, is like the cord
blend of solemnity and surprise, as well as its beauty which joins a child to its mother at birth. Nor is it reof moral truth, mark it as a little masterpiece. Nowhere moved until, by the act of assuming the obligations and
may one hope to find nobler appeal to the native nobil- fellowships of the moral life, a new, unseen tie is spun
ities of as man. What we get out of Freemasonry, as of and woven in the heart, uniting us, henceforth, by an
anything else depends upon our capacity, and our re- invisible bond, to the service of our race in its moral efsponse to its appeal; but it is hard to see how ant man fort to build a world of fraternal good will.
Such is the system of moral philosophy set forth in
can receive the First Degree and pass out of the lodge
symbols in which the initiate is introduced, and in this
room quite the same man as when he entered it.
What memories come back to us when we think light each emblem, each incident, should be interpretof the time when we took our first step in Freemason- ed. Thus Freemasonry gives a man at a time when it is
ry? We had been lead, perhaps, by the sly remarks of most needed, if he be young, a noble, wise, time-tried
friends to expect some kind of horseplay, or the rid- principle by which to read the meaning of the world
ing of a goat; but how different it was in reality. Instead and his duty in it. No man may hope to see it all at once,
of mere play-acting we discovered, by contrast, a rit- or once for all, sand it is open to question whether any
ual of religious faith and moral law, an allegory of life man lives long enough to think it through – for, like all
and a parable of those truths which lie at the founda- simple things, it is deep and wonderful. In the actuality
tions of manhood. Surely no man can ever forget that of the symbolism a man in the first degree of Freemahour when, vaguely or clearly, the profound meaning sonry, as in the last, accepts the human situation, enters
of Freemasonry began slowly to unfold before his mind. a new environment, with a new body of motive and exThe whole meaning of initiation, of course, is an perience. In short, he assumes his real vocation in the
analogy of the birth, awakening and growth of the soul; world and vows to live by the highest standard of values.
Like every other incident of initiation it is in the
its discovery of the purpose of life and the nature of the
world in which it is to be lived. The lodge is the world as light of the larger meanings of Freemasonry that we
it was thought to be in the olden times, with its square must interpret the Rite of Destitution. At a certain
surface and canopy of sky, its dark North and its radiant point in his progress every man is asked for a token of
East; its center an Altar of obligation and prayer. The a certain kind, to be laid up in the archives of the lodge
initiation, by the same token, is our advent from the as a memorial of his initiation. If he is “duly and truly
darkness of prenatal gloom into the light of moral truth prepared” he finds himself unable to grant the request.
and spiritual faith, out of lonely isolation into a net- Then, in one swift and searching moment, he realizes –
work of fellowships and relationships, out of a merely perhaps for the first time in his life – what it means for a
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Volume 1, Number 11, November 1923
are deserving of charity in its true Masonic sense, not
only in the form of financial relief, but also in the form
of companionship, sympathy and love. If we are bidden
to be on our guard against impostors, who would use
Masonry for their own ends, where there is real need,
our duty is limited only by our ability to help, without
injury to those nearest to us.
A church, it be worthy of the name, opens its doors
to all kinds and conditions of folks, rich and poor alike,
the learned and unlearned. But a lodge of Masons is
different, alike in purpose and function. It is made up
of picked men, selected from among many, and united
for unique ends. No man ought to be allowed to enter
the Order unless he is equal to its demands, financially as mentally and morally able to pay its fees and dues,
and to do his part in its work of relief. Yet no sets of
men, however intelligent and strong, are exempt from
the vicissitudes and tragedies of life. Take, for example,
Anthony Sayer, the first Grand Master of the Grand
Lodge of England. Towards the end of his life he met
with such reverses that he became tiler of Old Kings
Arms Lodge No. 28, and it is recorded that he was assisted “out of the box of this Society.” Such a misfortune or
something worse, may overtake any one of us, without
warning or resource.
Disasters of the most appalling kind befall men
every day, leaving them broken and helpless. How
often have we seen a noble and able man suddenly smitten down in mid life, stripped not only of his savings
but of his power to earn, as the result of some blow no
mortal wit could avert. There he lies, shunted out of active life when most needed and most able and willing to
serve. Life may any day turn Ruffian and strike one of
us such a blow, disaster following fat and following faster, until we are at its mercy. It is to such experiences that
the Rite of Destitution has reference, pledging us to aid
as individuals and as lodges; and we have a right to be
proud that our Craft does not fail in the doing of good.
It is rich in benevolence, and it knows how to hide its
labors under the cover of secrecy, using its privacy to
shield itself and those whom it aids.
Yet we are very apt, especially in large lodges, or in
the crowded solitude of great cities, to lose the personal touch, and let our charity fall to the level of a cold
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man to be actually destitute. For one impressive instant,
in which many emotions mingle, he is made to feel the
bewilderment, if not the humiliation, which besets one
who is deprived of the physical necessities of life upon
which, far more than we have been wont to admit, both
the moral and social order depend. Then, by a surprise
as sudden as before, and in a manner never to be forgotten, the lesson of the Golden Rule is taught – the
duty of a man to his fellow in dire need. It is not left to
the imagination, since the initiate is actually put into
the place of the man who asks his aid, making his duty
more real and vivid.
At first sight it may seem to some that the lesson is
marred by the limitations and qualifications which follow; but that is only seeming. Freemasons are under all
the obligations of humanity, the most primary of which
is to succor their fellow man in desperate plight. As Muhammad long ago said, the end of the world has come
when man will not help man. But we are under special
obligations to our brethren of the Craft, as much by the
prompting of our hearts as by the vows we have taken.
Such a principle, so far from being narrow and selfish,
has the endorsement of the Apostle Paul in his exhortations to the earl Christian community. In the Epistle to
the Ephesians we read: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them
who are of the household of faith.” It is only another
way of saying that “Charity begins at home,” and for
Masons the home is the lodge.
So, then, the destitute to which this Rite refers, and
whose distress the initiate is under vows to relieve, as
his ability may permit, are a definite and specific class.
They are not to be confused with those who are poverty-stricken by reason of criminal tendencies or inherent laziness. That is another problem, in the solution of
which Masons will have their share and do their part –
a very dark problem, too, which asks for both patience
and wisdom. No, the needy which this Rite requires that
we aid are “All Poor and Distressed, Worthy Masons,
their Widows and Orphans;” that is, those who are destitute through no fault of their own, but as the result of
untoward circumstances. They are those who, through
accident, disease or disaster, have become unable, however willing and eager, to meet their obligations. Such
46Unknown
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distant almsgiving. When this is so charity becomes as you can.”
Surely it was a good and wise wish, if we think of it,
a mere perfunctory obligation, and a lodge has been
known to vote ten dollars for its own entertainment! because the things which money cannot cure are the
There is a Russian story in which a poor man asked ills of the spirit, the sickness of the heart, and the dreaaid of another as poor as himself: “Brother, I have no ry, dull pain of waiting for those who return no more.
money to give you, but let me give you my hand,” was There are hungers which gold cannot satisfy, and blindthe reply. “Yes, give me your hand, for that, also, is a ing bereavements from which it offers no shelter. There
gift more needed than all others,” said the first; and the are times when a hand laid upon the shoulder, “in a
two forlorn men clasped hands in a common need and friendly sort of way,” is worth more than all the money
pathos. There was more real charity in that scene than on earth. Many a young man fails, or makes a bad misin many a munificent donation made from a sense of take, for lack of a brotherly hand which might have held
him up, or guided him into a wiser way.
duty or pride.
The Rite of Destitution! Yes, indeed; but a man may
Indeed, we have so long linked charity with the giving of money that the word has well nigh lost its real have all the money he needs, and yet be destitute of
meaning. In his sublime hymn in praise of charity, in faith, of hope, of courage; and it is our duty to share our
the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, St. Paul faith and courage with him. To fulfill the obligations of
does not mention money at all, except to say “and al- this Rite we must give not simply our money, but ourthough I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and have selves, as Lowell taught in “The Vision of Sir Launfal,”
not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” Which implies writing in the name of a Great Brother who, though
that a man may give all the money he possesses and yet he had neither home not money, did more good to hufail of that Divine grace of Charity. Money has its place manity than all of us put together – and who still haunts
and value, but it is not everything, much less the sum us like the dream of a Man we want to be.
of our duty, and there are many things it cannot do. A
The Holy Supper is kept indeed,
great editor sent the following greeting at the New Year:
In what so we share with another’s need;
“Here is hoping that in the New Year there will be
Not that which we give, but what we share,
nothing the matter with you that money cannot cure.
For the gift without the giver is bare;
For the rest, the law and the prophets contain no word
Who bestows himself with his alms feeds three,
of better rule for the health of the soul than the adjuraHimself, his hungering neighbor, and Me!
tion: Hope thou a little, fear not at all, and love as much
The Short Talk Bulletin
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Volume 1, Number 12, December 1923
For The Good Of The Order
Joseph Fort Newton
The substance of an address by Bro. Newton, Educational Director; at the Annual Meeting of The Masonic
Service Association, Washington, D.C., Oct. 29th, 1923; following the report of the Executive Commission.
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fter listening so intently to this remarkable Report, no one wishes to hear a long
speech from anybody. But, in as much as the Report referred so kindly to me, perhaps I may be allowed
a personal word, if only to tell in what mood I take up
the work, and the spirit in which I hope to do it.
First, let me tell a story. During the American Civil
War a young Captain in the army of the South was
taken prisoner and brought up the Mississippi to Rock
Island. The northern climate was severe on the southern men, proof of which can be found in the files of the
War Department. The young Captain fell ill, desperately ill. He made himself known as a Mason to an officer
of the prison. The officer took him out of the prison to
his home, and nursed him back to life. When the War
ended he put money in his pocket and gave him a little
pistol to protect himself on his way back to his southern home. That young Captain was my father!
So, as far back as I can remember, I have had a great
admiration for a Fraternity whose spirit could soften
the horrors of battle and mitigate the lot of a prisoner
of war. By the same token, I hope I have done a little
for Freemasonry in return, trying feebly to repay a measureless obligation. For the same reason I should like to
do more in its behalf before the day ends.
Since those far off years all of us have lived through a
Great War, and no man can pass through such an ordeal
and be the same man he was before. Something died in
me and was buried with the boys I buried in Flanders –
five hundred and twenty-seven of them in one day. All
Volume 1, Number 12, December 1923
bitterness, bigotry, and all ill-will if I ever had any toward any race or creed, lie dead and buried with the
War. Never have I had a deeper pity for my race, a greater love for my country, or a firmer faith that Freemasonry can do something for the re-building of the broken brotherhood of the world that nothing else can do.
It was in the old gray city of London, at that time an
arsenal and a hospital, that I first heard of the organization of The Masonic Service Association of the United States. It was one of the best bits of news that came
in the days when good news was rare. When I learned
of the basis on which the Association was organized,
and the program it meant to carry through, it was like
a dream come true. Now, at last, I felt that American
Masonry had begin to realize both its opportunity and
its obligations; and I had a great longing to have a part,
however small, in such a work.
The purpose of the Association, as I understood it,
sought to fulfill three basic principles of Freemasonry.
Brotherly Love, Relief and truth – the doing of good
and the spreading of light in the spirit of good will. Living under the shadow of a vast tragedy – trying to think
and pray in the rhythm of its guns – it seemed to me
that what the world needed was more Light, more Love,
More Understanding; and that is what it needs today.
Our program is two-fold, first to bring American Freemasonry together in cooperative fellowship and service
in a time of need and calamity; and second, to educate
Masons in Masonry that the gentle, kindly light which
shines on our Altar may find its way through our lives
48
Joseph Fort Newton
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attending “The Big Meets and the Big Eats,” using the
Masonic Apron for a napkin. Such men ought to have
a special Apron of their own, adorned with a knife and
fork as emblems!
Perhaps it is not altogether their fault – the lodge
that simply makes Masons, and does not teach Masonry, does only half its work, or does its work only half
way. If we do not know Masonry ourselves, if we do not
know how to teach it to our young initiates, if our lodges become simply mills grinding out degrees; our freemasonry will sink to the level of a club – useful as such
but in no way unique – losing its original purpose and
power, and its great opportunity in our own day.
Always the first principle of education is to excite
curiosity, to awaken interest; hence the plan of this Association, a few items of which I wish to mention without going far into detail. The moving-picture program
seeks to make use of one of the greatest arts of our time
to enlist interest in Freemasonry, by showing what it
means when actually worked out in modern life. In the
same way, the M.S.A. National Masonic Library will
bring the best thought of the Craft within the reach
of lodges and members; and our proposed journal,
The Master Mason, will be a medium for the exchange
of ideas, plans, methods and good-fellowship; and a
means of learning the present state of Freemasonry in
all lands, its aspirations and its difficulties.
Besides, we hope to enter the strangely neglected
field of fiction, using another great art in the service
of the Craft. Hitherto, except for the stories of Brother
Kipling, we have had few Masonic stories. The men of
the Craft, like all other Americans, read stories, and it
will be good news to know that one of the greatest of
American novelists has promised to write, as only he
can write, the story of Freemasonry in the American
Revolution. When our young men read that story their
blood will tingle and their hearts will beat faster as they
see and realize what a part Masonry had in the creation
of our Republic. Also, there wail be short stories dramatizing the meaning of Masonry and its creative influence in the practical life as we know and live it.
Masonic research, as I understand it, means to
search again for something we may have forgotten or overlooked. There are treasures of truth in our
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and through our lodges into the world of partisan strife
and sectarian feud where it is needed. What we want is a
service that educates and an education that serves.
The whole principle of Freemasonry is that “Brotherhood of Man begins with the Manhood of the Brother.” It seeks to build men, and then to make them
Brothers and Builders. Any other kind of brotherhood
is weak, if not futile, either a flabby sentimentalism or
a calculating selfishness. Masonry is made up of strong
men, picked men – they cannot be picked too carefully – sworn and trained to make righteousness and
good will prevail. By that very fact a great responsibility rests upon us, which we cannot escape even if we desired to do so. Whatever needs to be done in any community the Masons ought to be the leaders in doing it,
because they are Builders. Every Masonic lodge ought
to be a social and civic center, where designs are drawn
upon the Trestleboard for the common good, regardless of sect or party.
At first glance, our program may seem to be rather academic and highbrow, but it can be modified and
adapted to our real needs and problems. No man, no
set of men, can make such a program outright; it is by
doing things that we learn what needs to be done and
how best to do it. If we work together wisely, keeping
the human touch and the spiritual vision, our experiments will ripen into a fruitful experience of how the
spirit and principles of freemasonry can be practically applied to the life and service of our generation; as
Washington and Franklin wrought its genius into the
organic law of our new Republic.
Frankly, my first thought is not of the men who are
already Masonic students. We need them, of course,
and I believe they will rally to out help, as they did when
we founded the Research Society. No, we are thinking
of the throngs of young men – shock-headed boys, God
Bless them! – who are crowding into our Temples all
over the land. We welcome their youth, their energy,
their enthusiasm; but we want them to be Masons, not
merely members. We want them to know something
about Masonry, not only its ritual, but what the ritual means, and what Masonry can do and ought to do
in the World. Otherwise, as is so often the case, they
will drift away and become “Bread and Butter Masons;”
The Short Talk Bulletin
For The Good Of The Order49
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Here is our challenge and our opportunity, lest our
Freemasonry, and sources of power we have not yet
Temple
of Liberty and Fraternity be injured or dedreamed of much less used. We need to know the past
of Masonry in order to keep us true to its spirit, its pur- stroyed before it is completed and dedicated – for it
pose and its methods; and I think I have shown a not is not yet complete. Racial rancor is a thing slithered
unworthy interest in the history and archaeology of the with blood and the mother of feuds and wars. ReliCraft. But we must also make research into the present gious bigotry is one of the most horrible things in hismeaning, power, and application of Freemasonry, the tory. Its story is a tragedy too terrible to tell. As for lawbetter to know what our great order of Builders ought lessness, it strikes at the Altar of liberty, undermines all
to do and can do for the making of a greater and bet- our institutions, and opens the floodgates of anarchy.
ter America. The philanthropies of the Craft are munifi- These Ruffians, if they have they way, will wreck Freemasonry, as they came near doing long ago, and they
cent and its opportunities are magnificent!
Brethren, I believe in America as I believe in God, will ruin America.
Freemasonry, by virtue of its spirit and its teachings,
and I know that as Freemasonry did a great work in the
past of America, so can it do a still greater work in the can do for America what no other Fraternity can do.
future of our country. With the utmost respect and re- Without entering into political debates or sectarian disgard for other lands and peoples, our care is for Ameri- putes, as in the past so in the future, let us build upon
ca – our America, God’s America – to keep it true to its the foundations laid by our fathers, and make America
high, heroic tradition. Three Ruffians threaten the safe- what its poets and prophets have dreamed it should be;
ty and sanctity of America – racial rancor, religious big- and to have even a little part in such a work is honor
enough – it is honor enough.
otry and a disintegrating spirit of lawlessness!
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•••
Volume 1, Number 12, December 1923
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